Borderlands 2: The Series
by NewGamePlus
Summary: Set shortly after the Vault Hunters have defeated Handsome Jack, The Warrior and even Terramorphus, they now deal with a dangerous new Pandora where the New U stations are down and the arrival of a planet-threatening mercenary company that threatens the very order of the planet.
1. Intro

This is an introduction by me, New Game Plus. First and foremost, I am a big fan of Borderlands and Borderlands 2 and Gearbox Software/2K Games owns all of their characters (except the ones _I_ created). That being said, I'm really going to try to get all of their personalities and characterizations right but if you feel like they do or say something they wouldn't do, deal with it. Also, I really like how Gearbox introduces their characters with freeze frames which I will attempt to simulate with Introduction/Re-Introductions alerts. The chapters will be done in episodes which themselves will be broken apart. Please R&R.


	2. Episode 1, Part 1

Axton leveled his electric long range killer shotgun at a flock of grazing stalkers, sipping water from a spring in the highlands. He and his fellow vault hunters were hunting stalkers as Sanctuary was running low on meat in their stores. He had never had stalker meat himself and wondered how it tastes. Salvador claimed it tastes like chicken but he doubted a reptile would share texture or taste with poultry. Anyway, isn't that what people say about everything? He's heard bandits say that about human flesh. On second thought, he's also heard Salvador say that about human flesh.

He leveled his gun at the center mass of them. The shot will spread out at a distance of eighty meters and it should hit all five of the bastards at once. A stalker has the ability to cloak itself like something out of Harry Potter but it loses the ability to do it effectively when it's wounded. He should be able to wound them all at once with a good shot. He began to bear down on the trigger, squeezing slowly.

Just as he was about to shoot, another shot rang out from the cliffs above. All five of the stalkers fell to the ground. Axton looked up and saw Zer0 staring down at him, probably smiling some smug smile behind that mask of his. Zer0 slung his sniper over his shoulder. It was a type that fired seven horizontal shots at once, more than enough to put down a flock of stalkers with ease. Dinner was served.

Just as Axton and Zer0 converged on the downed stalker flock, Gaige and Salvador emerged from their own hiding spots behind rocks.

"I was just about to destroy the putos", complained Salvador.

"Yeah, well", Axton, said as he rubbed his neck. "If you're planning on taking score for kills; you're probably going to lose to Zer0."

"I'm not even impressed anymore, amigo", said the stunted but incredibly muscled Salvador, looking up at Zer0.

"Oh, as that may be", said Zer0, towering over all three of them, "five stalkers lie at our feet. Hey, where's our firehawk?"

"You mean Maya", asked Gaige, after blinking for a second.

* * *

Maya was sitting on a cliffside several miles away but closer to their camp in the highlands than the others. She was still directionless after Handsome Jack's defeat as she knew they would be. Where do they go from there? She knew there were more vaults on other planets but they don't have the means to get there. Hyperion has far more money and resources than they will ever have. They have the gear to move around Pandora with relative ease but leaving Pandora was another matter. Unless you had some serious tech, you were basically stuck. Even Lilith was clueless as how to get ahold of a ship. Attacking Hyperion would risk another war and the Crimson Raiders (except maybe Brick, Salvador, Gaige and Axton) were a bit weary of war. Why not enjoy a little peace first? Maya just feared waiting too long would leave them stranded on Pandora forever. What was all of their power acquired for if they couldn't plunder another vault?

At that moment, she was attempting to hear the voices of her sisters. Sometimes she could reach them in her mind: Lilith and two other whispering but distinguishable voices that sounded like chattering carried by a distant wind. She could never make out what they were saying and it often left her frustrated but it always kept her calm to remind her that she wasn't quite so alone as she sometimes felt.

Her eyes swirled with their deep purple energy and she levitated above the ground slightly until her concentration was by a shrill howl in the distance. She fell to the ground in an instant and looked back towards the sound. The howl came again. Whatever it was, it sounded big and pissed off.

* * *

The other vault hunters had been prepared to call in Maya on their echo communicator to pick them up in a Runner when a giant stalker jumped down to face them. Even with their abilities, it could probably wipe them out as they weren't prepared for it. Its howl was deafening up close and it was the biggest Stalker they've ever seen. Its fangs dripped a caustic venom that singed the grass as it seeped onto it.

"Guys", Gaige whispered, "I know the first instinct is usually to fight and I would usually agree with that but Hyperion has shut down the New U network so I suggest running until we can formulate a strategy."

"For once, I will agree with you, chica", said Salvador.

"Phalanx", shouted Axton as he deployed a turret from his back pocket. As the Turret extended itself, it shot up a digitized dome-shaped shield up over the four vault hunters, protecting them just in time as the giant stalker leapt up over the top of them but instead sat upon the impenetrable phalanx shield. The four of them pulled out their best weaponry and began to lay down a heavy barrage of fire up at the Stalker. When inside the Phalanx, they could fire outside but nothing could get _in_. It was fortunate that Gaige had designed noise-resistant earplugs that responded to high sound frequencies otherwise they would have gone deaf. The Stalker crawled around on top of the dome, periodically coming in and out of its cloak. It covered the entire thing.

From her cliffside, Maya heard the gunfire.

"Dammit", she said, knowing that her friends were in trouble as she leapt down the mountainside towards her parked Runner.

Salvador was hitting it with an electric assault rifle and a rocket launcher at the same time; Gaige had digistructed a Deathtrap that was firing both beams of fire and electricity from its palms; Zer0 was hitting it with explosive sniper rounds; and Axton's turret was firing rockets at it AND he himself was shooting it with a fire-elemental assault rifle. Nothing was putting a dent in that stalker. As his friends continued to waste their ammo, Axton ducked down on his echo communicator and called Maya.

"Maya", he yelled, "can you hear me, toots? You remember when I saved you when the Warrior almost knocked you into the lava pit and you said you owe me one! Well, I think it's time to call in that favor!"

"Already", yelled Maya as she hopped into the Runner and started it up, "it hasn't even been a week!"

"You know me", Axton shouted back, "if I end up as a trillionaire on a beach somewhere, I'm diving into the ocean and looking for a shark!"

"What is this, flirt time", asked Zer0, looking back over his shoulder as he fired. "I now stare into death's eyes. Its eyes are cuddly."

Strangely, enough Zer0 was right about that. Its eyes were large with big, glimmering pupils and didn't look malicious at all. It eyes told you it was only looking for a hug. It was like a cooing baby.

"Those teeth are nasty, though", shouted Salvador. Its body language told a different story than its eyes that if it didn't rip them apart with those venomous teeth of his within seconds, it would just keel over and die.

"Do you know where we're at", asked Axton.

"Yeah", yelled Maya. "I think the entire highlands know where you're at. I'm coming. Just stay alive until I get there. We can't revive anymore."

They ended the Echo conversation.

"How long does the phalanx lasts", asked Gaige.

"Two minutes is the max right now until it has to recharge", said Axton.

"It's already been like a minute", shouted Gaige, counting the seconds in her head.

"$#!%", shouted Salvador.

"It's been fun knowing you", said Zer0. "Just kidding. Seriously, though; Axton, you just suck."

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Zer0 as the _Uber-powerful ninja-troll_: **Okay, Gearbox, who is this guy? For real.**

"Thanks, Zer0", Axton yelled. "That's just the thing I need right now, you know, right before I die!"

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Axton as _the Iconic Asshole_: **Because there always has to be one of them.**

"We have to come up with a plan", shouted Gaige. "Fifty seconds!"

"No time for plans", shouted Salvador as he gritted his teeth and kept firing, "Only time for gunzerk!"

He ran out of rockets, so he dropped his rocket launcher and took his SMG from his hip and began shooting that.

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

_Salvador as Terminator? Rambo? No! Just Salvador!_: **Dude seriously needs to sit down for a second.**

"Zer0", Gaige shouted as she panicked and shook him. "Tell me there's a weak spot. Tell me!"

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Gaige as_ The Rising Fuhrer_: **They say the best anarchists make the vilest dictators (hopefully she subverts that).**

Zer0 looked up and quickly B0re-scanned him.

"Such a strange event", he said. "I usually find one. Weak spot; this time…"

Gaige looked at him and noticed his pause. "What", she asked. "What?"

He turned and faced her before he finished, "none." A FML emoticon displayed over his mask.

Gaige's face registered something like disappointment and despair at that answer as she said, "No weak spot? Even Terramorphus had a weak spot. Terramorphus had several weak spots. After everything I did…I built a death-dealing robot… I traveled several light-years alone…I saved a planet… I'm only eighteen. So I get to die now? That's my reward? Twenty-five seconds."

"Maya", Axton yelled through his Echo communicator, "can you hurry? Gaige is starting to depress me!"

"Shut up", Maya yelled as she bounced around on some rocks and juts near a stream on the way to them, "you're distracting me!"

"I just want you to know", Axton said, "it's the biggest stalker I've ever seen and it's climbing on top of my phalanx shield trying to get us."

"Okay", said Maya, after thinking for second, "I know what to do."

Salvador was now basically out of ammo. The only reason he was still popping off shots was because his mod regenerated bullets and rockets for him; he would shoot them off the split second he got them so he was sporadically firing now.

Zer0 wasn't firing anymore and turned his attention to Gaige.

"Gaige, some things just end", he said. "I have something to ease it. Look closely now-"

"Are we gonna have sex", blurted out Gaige.

"No", said Zer0. A ? emoticon appeared in front of his mask.

"Damn", she said, looking off to the side before shaking her head, "I mean, what do you want to show me?"

Zer0 reached under his mask and pressed a few hidden latches as the mask became visibly looser around his skull.

"Oh mama", said Gaige as Zer0 began to lift up. "Fifteen seconds!"

Axton watched Zer0 with a look that you would expect a man would have as he watched a beautiful woman undress in front of him. Although, Salvador was still shooting pot-shots, he did a double take when he saw Zer0 was about to remove his mask.

"Ten seconds", said Gaige as Zer0's mask began to rise. "Why are you taking so long?"

They all watched as the seconds counted down and Zer0's mask continued to rise. When it got down to seven seconds, they heard Maya's runner approaching and at five flew over the cliff towards them. She turbo-skidded over the top of the phalanx shield and knocked the stalker off with it; she then rolled out of the side of the runner and slid down over the side of the phalanx to the ground. She had left eight Mirv grenades in the front seat, each with eight baby grenades of their own; combine that with the damage that the explosion of the runner would cause; only Gaige and Tiny Tina could do the math. Their answers would be the same: Kakabooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooom!

The runner took the stalker to the ground and skidded over it for a couple of yards before blowing up at least sixty-four times on top of it.

While this happened, the phalanx shield redeployed and Zer0 pulled his mask back down, latching it back in place.

"Nevermind", he said. A digital :) emoticon appeared over his mask.

"What", Gaige said. "NoooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooo!"

Axton put the redeployed turret back on his hip.

"What, kid", he said, "would you rather be dead?"

Salvador put his guns away and shook his head.

Axton approached Maya, who turned back to him.

"Was that awesome or what", she asked with a hand on her hip.

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Maya as _the Alpha AND Omega…Bitch_: **The only heroic Vault Hunter since the first one.**

The five of them were startled when they heard some snarling in the smoke as an inflamed tire rolled away. They stopped in their tracks when the flaming stalker's head rose high above them, blocking the very sky. Its eyes looked into theirs for a second before it suddenly collapsed to the ground in front of them, dead at last.

* * *

"Lilith", Maya called in over her ECHO communicator, "are you getting this?"

Lilith was at Crimson Raiders HQ with Brick and Mordecai. The three were staring at Maya's digital visual of the stalker over their command hub.

"Yeah, sis", she said, "we're getting it."

"That's the biggest stalker I've ever seen", mused Mordecai. They saw Gaige waving down at them from forty feet in the air as Maya looked up to its back.

"And I wasn't even there to punch it", said Brick while shaking his head.

"It's almost as big as Saturn", Maya said, "Hyperion's prized loader of all loaders. We've told you about it."

"Yeah", Lilith said, "as tall as a skyscraper. I remember. Well, Sanctuary won't be hungry for a while. We're going to have to teleport some butchers out there and cut it down to size before it goes bad. Good work, guys."

"Thanks", said Maya.

"Hurry back", said Lilith as she looked around at her fellow vault hunters. "We, the chiefs of the Crimson Raiders have a lot to discuss."

"Roger", said Maya.


	3. Episode 1, Part 2

Axton, Gaige, Maya, Salvador and Zer0 were now in Sanctuary while some butchers were using some of the largest saws ever seen to dismember the giant stalker. Fifteen crimson raiders were pulling security on them so they were good in that respect. Meanwhile, the vault hunters were all gathered in the command room at HQ. As the acting leader of the Crimson Raiders, Lilith took the lead in their meetings among the vault hunters and the rallies with all of the Crimson Raiders. Mordecai was her unofficial co-chair. He's been working on cutting down his drinking.

"Okay", Lilith said as she leaned over the table, "I have a few issues to bring up."

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert_-

Lilith as _Possibly the most powerful human in the universe now that Angel's dead. Seriously_. : **Jean Grey, eat your heart out.**

"First of all", she said. "What the hell were you guys thinking?"

"What", Salvador asked, confused. "You wanted us to hunt, so we hunt."

"And you did the _hell_ out of that", yelled Brick, giving them a thumbs up.

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert-_

Brick as _King Slab the Unstoppable_: **Still doesn't know what a bullet is.**

"Brick", Lilith said with a sigh, "please. Yeah, sure, I wanted you to hunt a few stalkers to keep Sanctuary but that _thing_ is like a legendary!"

"I've never heard of it", Axton said, looking to Zer0. "Have you?"

Zer0 shook his head.

"I don't recall a name", Axton said.

"Why don't you guys just shut up", said Mordecai, leaning in a corner with his arms crossed. "Lilith is trying to get to a point. Why don't you just let her talk?"

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert-_

Mordecai as _the Hunter who's just as deadly without Bloodwing, RIP_: **Please don't remind him.**

"Look", Lilith said, "we've already lost Roland. We can't lose another vault hunter. Maya? Where were you when they met that stalker."

"I-I was at the outpost", she stammered.

"Why", asked Lilith.

"I was searching for our sisters", said Maya. "Meditating. I can hear them, Lil. They're distant but they're out there."

"That's not important right now", said Lilith. "You should have been with the others, healing them if any of them went down. Guys, Hyperion has disabled the New-U stations. When you die, that's it; game over. It's like ever since you guys killed Handsome Jack and the Warrior, you've been getting sloppy. It's like you don't care anymore. You guys saw the same thing I saw. There are more vaults out there! That's motivation; but before we do that, we have to remember something. Hyperion hasn't left yet."

"Hyperion is still here", Gaige shouted with a jump. "Oh, helllllz no! Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's what we discussed at the last meeting", said Mordecai. "You were there."

Gaige thought back to what she was doing at the last meeting. She remembered that she was pretending to tweak out the schematics for an upgraded deathtrap on her digipad but what she was really doing was playing a hacked version of Ms. Pacman where Ms. Pacman had a gun in her mouth, the pellets were eridium, the power pellets were even bigger guns and all of the ghosts were miniature versions of Handsome Jack.

"Heh heh", chuckled Gaige. "Ms. Pacman rocks my socks. Anyway, Hyperion will suffer for being here under my nose. Sic Semper Tyrannis!

Salvador remembered Gaige had said the same thing before they all shot Handsome Jack at about the same time. They still argue as to whose bullet actually killed him and whose hit him first.

"They're redeploying, Gaige", Mordecai said, "but they've built cities here. Even they couldn't pull back all of those supplies without leaving a lot of it to the bandits. They want to protect their investments."

"Heeeeey", Brick said, snapping his fingers. "You just gave me an idea."

"No, Brick", Mordecai said. "You can't use your Slabs to attack Hyperion and steal all of their supplies. We're in a ceasefire right now."

"Psst", Gaige whispered to Brick. "If you're attacking Hyperion, I'm totes in. Also, please don't tell anybody I just said totes."

"Tomorrow", Mordecai continued, "Zer0 and I will head to the Hyperion outpost and make sure nothing fishy is going on."

"In the meantime", Lilith continued. "Don't get yourselves killed. Only hunt game you _know_ you can kill and don't take _any _missions. Before I adjourn this meeting, anybody have anything they want to add?"

* * *

"Ugh, I hate her", Maya later said while she was sitting and having beers with Axton and Salvador at their table.

"Not liking big sis, right now huh", asked Salvador as he downed his entire mug beer in several gulps before belching loudly.

"She thinks she knows everything", complained Maya. "She's so short-sighted. How could the other sirens not be important?"

"Screw her", Axton said, taking a sip of his beer. "It was us that saved her ass, right? Without us, they would have all been dead. I blame her for Roland dying, anyway."

"Come on", Maya said. "That's a little harsh."

"Whatever, backpedaler", Axton answered.

"I don't know, man", Maya said, slamming her head on the table in frustration. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing anymore."

"The old vault hunters seem to have everything under control here", said Salvador. "Maybe we should strike out on our own and search for those other vaults. You think Gaige could build us a ship?"

"To travel to another world", asked Maya, with her head still down. "Not with what we have. We'd have to do some serious looting. Fuel, metals, a lot of engineers…"

"Why don't we just steal a ship from those Hyperion pendejos", suggested Salvador.

"Not bad, Salvador", Maya said as she shot up. "Of course, we'll have to do it under Lilith's nose. We're supposed to be in a 'ceasefire' with them. She'll have a hissy fit if she finds out."

"I'm going to get another beer", said Salvador as he began to get up.

Axton suddenly put a hand on Salvador's shoulder to gesture him back down.

"No, no, my friend", Axton said, keeping eye contact with Moxxi from across the room. She was cleaning a glass as she stared at him. He was staring at her breasts. "I'll get that for you. What did you have, a Snow Dragon?"

"Hell no", said Salvador. "Los Diablos all day, everyday."

"Whatever", said Axton absently as he got up and went to the bar.

"Hey, get me on too…", Maya said, trailing off when she realized Axton wasn't paying attention at all.

* * *

"Scooooter", called Gaige as she descended into his workshop and called to him from his steel balconey. "Scooooter."

"Aw, crap", said Scooter from underneath a Runner he was doing some work on. "It's that crazy anarchist mechromancer again. She liable to kill me if she heard me just now. Ah should probably stop having internal monologues out loud. Damn, Ah'm still doing it."

Gaige walked down the stairs towards him.

"Have you seen Claptrap", she asked when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

Scooter suddenly stopped moving or breathing.

"Are you playing dead so I'll leave you alone", Gaige said with her hands on her hips, "because I already told you, that won't work again."

"Darn it", said Scooter.

Using her metal claw, Gaige yanked Scooter from under his runner but pulled so hard that he skidded past her and hit one of his own tool boxes and knocked it over. He let out a string of curses in response. Gaige giggled.

"I'm fine, I'm fine", shouted Scooter, jumping to his feet. "Now, what brings you to my humble abode! Also, please don't steal any of my tools; I need those! Hey, that rhymed! Ah meant to do that!"

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert-_

Scooter as _the Unlucky Mechanic, looking for love_: **The track record speaks for itself. Ask Daisy…or Laney.**

"No, you didn't", retorted Gaige.

"Well, when you're right, you're right", said Scooter, walking back over to the runner.

"What are you doing, anyway", asked Gaige.

"Ah can make some improvements", said Scooter. "Ah just know it. Ah already modified one with an adaptable solar deflection system so that it could cloak like dem stalkers."

"That's lame, Scooter", she said. "I did that with Deathtrap soooo long ago. You're falling behind, man. Now, where's Claptrap?"

"Claptrap", asked Scooter. "You got that boy scareder than a skag pup with an angry mama skag. Now put that down!"

Scooter ran over to Gaige, who was spinning a lug wrench in her hand. He tried to take it from her but she playfully held it out of reach.

"Ah don't know", Scooter yelled, "but he does have a home out in the Windshear Wastes."

Gaige paused for a second.

"Oh yeah", she remembered. "I've even been there before. I can be such an idiot when I come up with brilliant ideas."

* * *

Claptrap was indeed back in his house, rounding up the downed Claptrap models or at least attempting to.

"Now that Handsome Jack's dead, maybe I can finally repair some of my brothers-in-arms", said Claptrap as he wheeled over to another Claptrap model and attempted to pick it up. He struggled for a few seconds before giving up. "Huh, I guess I need to warm up first."

Claptrap wheeled over to his furnace and rubbed its metal arms in front of it, attempting to warm up.

"Alright", he shouted. "Heeeat!"

Suddenly, two large shadows loomed over Claptrap, causing him to freeze on its wheel.

"Oh no", he said, cowering. "Please don't be who I think you are."

"You've been hiding for too long, Claptrap", said Gaige with her hands on her hips and Deathtrap hovering behind her. "You've been a very bad Claptrap."

"I'm sorry, Minion", Claptrap said, turning to face her. "Please don't take out the saw again."

"You're MY minon, now", shouted Gaige with an evil laugh as the silhouette of the flames danced about her face. "Muhahahahahahahahaha!"

Gaige then fell into a coughing fit and cleared her throat.

"Okay, seriously; come with me", she said.

* * *

Dr. Patricia Tannis was sitting in her den inside her Sanctuary apartment, recording her thoughts and notes on the Eridian map of the extra vaults. There was a hologram of above her desk that she had scanned from the Vault of the Warrior.

"Day 5 since the Warrior was defeated and Ugly Jack was shot five times in the face", said Dr. Patricia Tannis into her Echo recorder. "I still haven't been able to figure out which planets house the vaults or if there is anything of further interest on Pandora. I have scanned the digital map of the vaults all day and night. Still pending results. In other news, Zer0's identity admittedly intrigues me. I have drunk six shots of Skag urine and put shards of Eridium in my eyelids. Zer0 will have to sleep sometime in the next seventy-two hours and when he does I will be there to lick his nose. Stay tuned."

_Re-Introduction Alert, Re-Introduction Alert_-

Dr. Patricia Tannis as _Dr. Schizophrenia_: **Everybody else this determined wears a straight-jacket.**

She then turned off the recorder and reached up to the map. She took off her right glove and put her fingertips right through one of the dots.

"Where _are_ you and what secrets do you hold", she wondered aloud.

* * *

Maya found herself incredibly intrigued when the butchers brought back pieces of their stalker. She wanted to see more of the largest stalker she had ever seen, so she followed them when they carried bags of it from a Runner they pulled up to the front gate. She even followed them to the butcher shop and into the kitchen. They didn't seem to notice her or even if they did, they didn't seem to care. She watched as they pulled out a few large claws and chunks of hide.

"Hey", said one of the younger cooks as he pulled out some soft membrane, "do you eat the wing?"

"I don't think it'd be very good", said another butcher. "Throw it away."

"No way", said another butcher. "Somebody could make a coat out of that or some shoes."

"Hey, I found a gun", said one of the cooks, reaching into the bag and pulling out a strange-looking shotgun.

It was mostly black but the grip was transparent with orange fluid moving throughout it. There were also transparent tubes flowing around the barrel and going into the shell chamber, filled with orange fluid as well. It was one of the coolest weapons she's ever seen. Why hadn't they thought to check its stomach for weapons like they did with everything else they killed? Maybe because they were so freaked out by it?

The cook lifted the shotgun and looked through its sights as he cocked it.

"You're under arrest", he yelled, playing around.

She walked over and easily yanked it out of his hands.

"Be careful with that", she said, "before you kill somebody."

She opened it and saw there were no shells. She would have to fix that.

"It's cool", the cook said, throwing his hands up and backing away. "It's yours. You did kill it."

"You're damn right", agreed Maya as she slung the shotgun over her shoulder and turned to leave.

"Hold up", said the butcher, lifting the wing fragment up to the light. "Do you see this?"

Maya stopped in her tracks and turned back around.

* * *

Axton walked to his fridge and grabbed two beers out of it. He realized everything else in the fridge besides the beer was spoiled. He would need to fix that. Oh well, he did help kill that stalker. He could always use that to take a huge chunk of it. He closed the fridge.

"Ax", Maya called to him from behind.

Axton jumped and turned, dropping one of the beers to the floor and letting it shatter.

"Dammit", he yelled as he raised a hand and rubbed his head in annoyance. He leaned over and slammed that hand on the counter. He was completely naked. It was his apartment after all. "How did you get in here?"

"Um, siren", was Maya's matter-of fact response. She was holding something in her arms.

"What do you want", he asked.

A familiar voice called out from his bedroom down the hall.

"Ax", called Moxxi, "is everything alright in here? I heard something crashing."

She was wearing one of Axton's long dress shirts that barely contained her ladybits.

"Oh", she said when saw Maya standing in his kitchen with him. "Do we have another playmate? I'm game."

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert_-

Mad Moxxi as _Mad Moxxi_: **The sex kitten with an entire planet of men willing to die for her. Including my player character.**

"Um", said Maya, looking back at Axton, "you wore protection, right?"

"Protection", asked Axton, pretending to be clueless but maybe not. "You mean like a shield? That kind of defeats the purpose, Maya."

Maya facepalmed.

"Moxxi", she said, looking over her shoulder. "I have to talk to my idiot teammate. Can you give us a minute?"

Moxxi gave a look to Axton, who opened the fridge and grabbed another beer. He then gingerly hopped over the broken beer bottle on the floor. He made it to Moxxi and handed them to her.

"Make it quick", said Moxxi, "I'm still waiting for my turn."

She turned and went back to the bedroom, swaying her hips.

"That woman is hard to read", Axton said when Moxxi made it into the bedroom. He walked back to the kitchen and reached into his drawer before pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He then lit one with a cigarette burner on his counter and took an inhale. He offered it to Maya, who shook her head. He shrugged and took another puff before exhaling.

"Gross", commented Maya, talking about Axton and Moxxi. She lifted up the wing fragment and held it out to him. "This a wing from the stalker we killed today."

"That isn't gross", asked Axton sarcastically.

"Shut up, idiot", she said, "and look at this. It was underneath the wing." The wing had a familiar symbol on the flesh.

"Wait", Axton said, moving his cigarette closer to it for a better look.

"Stop that", she said, knocking his hand away.

"That's the Eridian vault symbol", he said.

"Yes it is."

"No", he said after taking a drag on his cigarette and flicking some ashes. "It's a hoax."

"What", she asked. "How do you figure?"

"Some bandits must have branded it", he said.

"I doubt that", she said. "Bandits are _dumb_."

"Hyperion, then", Axton said. "The Wildlife Preservation Reserve?"

"Look at it", she said. "This isn't a brand or tattoo. It's just flesh. This is natural. What does it mean?"

"I don't know", he said. "I hate animals."

"We should ask Tannis", she said.

"In the morning", he semi-begged.

"Sure, lover-boy", she said. "In the morning, we'll ask Tannis."

He walked past her.

"Love", he mused. "Who said anything about love?"

"Okay", she said. "lust, then. Whatever. Nice ass, by the way."

"Thanks", he said. "Maybe, I'll get to see yours one day."

"Yeah, right", she said as she began to leave.

_Get your act together_, she thought, _and don't catch anything from Moxxi, then we'll see_.

* * *

Salvador was at the Fast Travel Station, smoking a cigar. Next to the Fast Travel Station was the New U station, which happened to be grayed out and inoperational, as they were all over Pandora. Hyperion was the corporation that installed and licensed them. They also inactivated them, probably as some form of revenge. One could initially shrug off the notion of not having them but it turned out to change a lot.

For one, there seemed be a lot more peace between the bandit clans. With the fear of permanent death lingering everywhere, bandits tended to act a lot less crazy and less willing to destroy everything they see. There was also a negative effect, though. Vault hunters were dying left and right. With the dangers that vault hunters usually faced in their search for loot, they always had the New U's to fall back on. Not anymore, so they were all dying out. The only reason why Salvador and the others hadn't followed suit was they were the strongest and they were just plain smarter about it.

Many vault hunters followed after Salvador and the others to grab the scraps of loot that they left behind, unaware that their common enemies would and did decimate the average vault hunters. He looked at this downed New U station, realizing that even after everything, Hyperion had struck at them the hardest. He promised to himself that he would strike back at them even harder than that.

He heard crackling in the distance. Crackling? Like thunder? He walked outside with the cigar still in his mouth. Lightning was indeed striking in the distance. Suddenly, his cigar was put out and he felt more heavy rain drops on his head and nose. Suddenly, it began to downpour in torrents. No, it began to _storm_; with lightning; heavy, flooding rain; everything. He looked around, absolutely shocked for the first time in a long time and let the cigar fall out of his mouth.

A lot of people came out of their homes in Sanctuary, absolutely amazed. A man opened his mouth with his face to the sky.

"It's water", he shouted. "Genuine, clean water!"

Some citizens were dancing in the streets with their children beginning to powerslide in the forming mud.

* * *

Lilith woke up and looked out over her balconey, still wrapped in her bedsheets.

"Roland", she said to herself, "I wish you were here to see _this_."

* * *

Scooter pushed a button that opened his garage door to the ceiling and looked out into the storming sky.

"Well, I'll be goddamned", he said.

* * *

In Sawtooth Cauldron, some psycho bandits and Nomads walk out of the caverns out into the storming sky. They were even amazed.

"Get some buckets", one of the nomads yelled. A bunch of others echoed him. A bunch of subordinate bandits were scrambling throughout the mine to find buckets and containers.

"Where are the damn buckets", somebody else yelled.

* * *

In Thousand Cuts, a couple of buzzards flew to the top of their water tower. Some bandits were on the top of it, attempting to hook the buzzards' hooks to the underside of the roof. The wind blew one of them off.

"Forget him", said one of the others and they continued working.

When they were done, they climbed back up into the buzzards and the buzzards lifted the top of the water tower off as it was nearly empty.

* * *

At Axton's apartment, Axton and Moxxi approached a window. Tears were streaming down Moxxi's face and her hands were on her mouth. Axton noticed this and smirked.

"Come on", he said, "you act like you've never seen rain."

"I haven't", she said. "As long as I have lived, it has never rained on Pandora. This is a dream; it's the most…beautiful thing I've ever seen."

* * *

Dr. Tannis had her door opened and was standing at her doorway as she looked outside. She turned on her Echo recorder again.

"This is Dr. Patricia Tannis", she said. "I am breaking usual procedure by leaving more than one log in one day but the situation calls for it. It is raining."

She suddenly broke into laughter, excited yet again.

"It is raining in Pandora for the first time in one hundred and fifty years and not just that, but actually storming. As anybody who knows me knows, I am not very dramatic. However, I can't help but feel that something incredible is happening here. The other vaults will have to wait. I feel Pandora isn't done with me yet. Not…quite…yet."

She turned off the echo recording and smiled.


	4. Episode 1, Part 3

Hi, this is just a little intro from me, NewGamePlus. This is the final part of episode 1. I'm trying to write the episodes in either two or three parts for sanity's sake. This one was finished a lot later than I would've liked because I didn't know it would be so long. I wanted the parts to be short and sweet but I'm pretty satisfied with this one because I think it balances the characters' action scenes nicely and gets the story rolling. The chapter labeled Episode 2, Part 2 is wrong; that's obviously Episode 1, Part 2. My bad. I'll change it. Next up is Episode 2, Part 1 where the REAL conflict comes into play. Please RRF. Also, I'm really loving the reads, reviews and follows you guys are giving me. It really motivates to churn this stuff out. Shawties, Ya'll da best. You all get a cookie. It's a cookie called Episode 1, Part 3.

* * *

The following morning, Maya and Axton were in Tannis' apartment, waiting semi-patiently as Tannis turned the wing over and over in her hands. Axton coughed deliberately as they had been watching her turn it over for five minutes. Maya ran an elbow into his side and gave him a nasty glare in response.

"Um", Axton said, "do you have an…opinion or are we just…wasting our time?"

Tannis absently picked up an empty can of skag and beans and threw it at him, hitting him in the forehead.

He closed his eyes and sighed, holding back the desire to punch her in the face.

She then lifted the wing up to her nose and sniffed it. She then opened her mouth and ran her tongue the entire length of the vault symbol. The two vault hunters watched this with their mouths wide open, in shock.

"This came from a stalker", announced Tannis.

Axton stood up from a stool and visibly washed his hands of the situation before turning to leave.

"What are you doing", asked Maya.

"Dude", Axton said, "she's licking dead flesh and stating the obvious. What are we doing taking advice from a crazy woman, anyway? I'm outie."

"If you would let me finish, simpleton", yelled Tannis. "What I mean to say is this came from a stalker naturally; it's not a brand or a tattoo."

"I told you", Maya told Axton.

"Using process of elimination and my personal genius, I have deciphered many Eridian tablets and glyphs", she explained. "There is something vitally important in the highlands."

"& #%$#!%", said Axton immediately. "The five of us have been over every square inch of the Highlands. There is nothing there but stalkers, threshers and their filth!"

"Fool", shouted Tannis as she hurled an empty pot at Axton's head that he managed to dodge. "There is something else there: water and humidity! Everywhere else on Pandora are either hot or cold desert. Dry. It hasn't rained for one hundred and fifty years. Yet, the highlands has waterfalls, rivers, lakes and an ocean. I'm frankly not surprised that nobody else has thought of this as everybody else who isn't me are idiots and all Hyperion cared about was waking the Warrior."

Axton and Maya watched Tannis as she struggled to pull an Eridian tablet from beneath her kitchen table and laid it on top, knocking some pots to the floor.

"According to these texts", Tannis said, "_all _of Pandora was the highlands many years ago. Yet, some event, the same event that likely wiped out the Eridians, left Pandora a barren wasteland; except for the Highlands. Why?"

"Okay", Axton said, "I'll bite. Why?"

"Well", she said. "I've actually never been there. I was hoping you could give me a clue."

"My god", Axton, said rubbing his nose.

"Well, there's only one thing to do", she said. "We have to go to the highlands."

"There's nothing there", Axton said.

"Ah, you brutish man", she said. "There's nothing on land but have you been in the _water_."

Axton actually stopped in his tracks and Maya was at a loss of words. They hadn't even thought to go aquatic because everything they had done had either revolved around Handsome Jack, Terramorphus, or the sand pirates. All of that had been on dry land; the highlands just happened to be on the way. The place being important in any way just seemed so out of left field to them, it was crazy.

"I've read of some aquatic beasts called Raskillions", she continued. "From what I've gathered, from ingesting stalker meat brought in from the highlands, they suspiciously resemble the Raskillions from ancient time. With their environments, it wouldn't be a stretch to say the Raskillions evolved to live on dry land and become today's stalkers."

"So the stalkers used to be fish", asked Axton.

"Probably more like sharks", said Maya.

"You have to admit", Tannis continued, "the whole thing is intriguing. Eridians preferred dark, cavernous regions to hide their secrets. Why wouldn't they go underwater where there is no sun? The highlands are special somehow. Someone will eventually find out why. I would like that to be me."

"So", Axton said, "have you heard of any underwater vaults."

"Nothing specifically", she answered, "but there is something there. I've seen the area mentioned too much on tablets to be just a fluke coincidence."

"That's good enough for me", Axton said. "I like a little mystery. I'm always disappointed by the end."

"We have to get properly geared up", said Maya. "We have to get the others involved and we have to be very quiet about it. Lilith can't find out about it. None of the crimson raiders can. She'll have a hissy fit."

"I've always wanted to see two sirens fight", said Axton.

"You're not leaving me", said Tannis.

"You're coming", asked Maya.

"I was the first to discover the vault key, dammit", said Tannis. "I deciphered the texts and I'm the smartest being on Pandora. I've opened the vaults and yet each time, some violent pest snatched it from me. No more. This time, I will be the one to make the discovery _and_ reap the rewards."

"Alright, Dr. Tannis", said Axton as he whistled. She actually smiled in response.

"Okay, guys", said Maya. "Let's do this right. Where're the others?"

* * *

"Grab your best gear, Slab", said Brick through Gaige's Echo Communicator. "I want you to really _bring _it today!"

Gaige lifted her Bunny Rocket Launcher and balanced it in her arms before strapping it on her back. She was going to help Brick assault the Hyperion outpost in the Highlands. Of course, they couldn't tell Lilith or she would have a Siren's fit and kill them all.

"I always bring it", she assured him.

Claptrap slid into the room, now hovering into the room, leaving a slipstream trail like Gaige's own Deathtrap.

"So do I, minion", he yelled, holding small balls of lightning in his palms. "So do IIIIIIII!"

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Claptrap as the new, improved murder machine: You thought he was annoying before? Now he can climb stairs.

Salvador watched Claptrap and Gaige sneaking out of the apartments towards the Fast Travel Station. It's hard to be a ninja when you're sloshing loudly through the mud.

"Hey, you", yelled out Salvador.

"Run, Claptrap, run", shouted Gaige as she tried to break out into a sprint.

"Whaaaaaaaa", shouted Claptrap, frantically waving his arms as he hovered towards the Fast Travel Station.

Gaige slipped facefirst into the mud, her legs flying backwards up in the air. Salvador easily scooped her up, wrapping his arms around her stomach and lifted her up in the air.

"Let me go, you Truxican junkie", shouted Gaige.

"Now, it isn't nice to call names", whispered Salvador in his thick accent as he put a large hand over her mouth. "I'm not here to stop you. I want in."

"Oh", she said when he removed his hand. "Well, let's stick the knife in the heart of an empire!"

* * *

Mordecai and Zer0 were at a safe distance from the Hyperion camp, surveying the scene through zoomed binoculars and sniper scopes. Constructors were rapidly manufacturing loaders to move large boxes, girders and eridium batteries onto large Hyperion transport ships. Nothing was really out of the ordinary. They were just redeploying, like their intel said.

"You seeing this, Lil", Mordecai asked over his communicator.

"Yeah", Lilith said watching it from the HQ command center. "Stay alert, guys. These guys have given me every reason to not trust them."

"I know", said Mordecai. He looked over at Zer0, who had moved out a distance from Mordecai and faced away from the outpost. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"The wind switched her tune", he said, "so suddenly as if running; from death's grip itself."

"What", Mordecai asked, "you can feel the wind through your suit?"

Suddenly, a digital hologram appeared before them. Gradually, it solidified into a thin, solid man.

"Blake", said Mordecai, recognizing him instantly.

"That's _President_ Jeffrey Blake to you", he said, relaxing his hands behind his back and standing tall in long, pinstripe suit.

Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:

Mr. Jeffrey Blake as Acting Hyperion President: Tired of Hyperion, yet? Too bad.

"So you're the new dictator, huh", asked Mordecai.

"This man just sounds evil", said Zero, stepping forward. "Who wears a suit here, ever? Let me shoot his face."

"Not yet", said Mordecai. "He hasn't broken the ceasefire."

"A ceasefire that I intend to uphold", said Blake, "granted that you can keep the Crimson Raiders from pointing those itchy trigger fingers at us. See, you were always wrong about Hyperion. Hyperion isn't some evil empire. We create jobs. We sustain life. We just make things better."

"Yeah, right", Mordecai said. "Tell that to the slag-sick humans and animals Hyperion ruthlessly experimented when you built the Preserve."

"Ah, that was Jack's doing", said Blake.

"But _you_ let it happen", Mordecai countered. "Hyperion nearly destroyed everything here. It may not be much but good people can live here without some kind of corporation watching over them and making things worse. You're lucky you're leaving because if you weren't, we'd kick your ass all the way back to your homeworld."

"Hmm", said Blake, rubbing his chin as he thought this over. "I might have deserved that, I admit."

"What you deserve, friend", said Zer0, "involves a badass fire skag; and you with one round."

"I grow weary of this place, anyway", Blake said. "Every meter we dig into Pandora brings us nothing but pain at the hands of you vault hunters and these forsaken beasts. We've made our profit here but now it's starting to cost too much. It's time to cut our losses and leave. I assure you that as long as you keep your half of the truce, you will not see us unless you seek us out."

Blake offered his hand to Mordecai as a show of peace. Mordecai reluctantly took it.

"But if you should break that truce", Blake continued, "we will descend upon Sanctuary with the armies of two worlds. You will be crushed beneath our weight before we even fire one shot."

"What's that sound", asked Zer0, hearing some flapping in the distance. A red question mark appeared before his face. The three of them turned towards the sound. Black spots quickly closed the distant.

"Dammit", mumbled Mordecai when they got closer and he saw they were bandit buzzards. There was an aerial formation of about twenty of them. The one in the middle was three times the size of the others.

"Hey, Mordy", said Brick, through his Echo coms. "How do you like my buzzard formation?"

"It looks like $#!%", shouted Mordecai.

"Is that Brick", asked Blake.

"What are you doing here", asked Mordecai to Brick.

"Kicking some Hyperion ass, of course", he answered. "Also, I'm stealing their tech!"

"Hmm", said Blake, "I don't know if I could uphold our ceasefire if your vault hunters attack us."

"What; you mean Brick", asked Mordecai. "He's only an associate. He's a bandit, now, the king of the Slab clan."

As the buzzards closed in on the Hyperion camp, Salvador parachuted down from one of them as he rained down caustic fire from two assault rifles, simultaneously smoking his cigar. He dropped six loaders in about six seconds as they were lifting equipment.

"_He_ isn't one of yours", asked Blake.

"Um", said Mordecai, "he's a loose cannon. He has to _shoot_ something I think or he'll have a heart attack or something."

Meanwhile, Deathtrap hovered to the ground with Gaige on his shoulders.

"Hey, you Hyperion fascists", she shouted.

"Oh crap", said one of the Hyperion Engineers, "it's that crazy bitch again!"

"I have a Teapot with your names all over it", she yelled, "and I'm not reloading until I absolutely have to! Death to all the empire scum! Ayyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi!"

Deathtrap descended on a group and demolished them with beams of fire.

"Tsk tsk", said Blake to Mordecai, as he walked away. "Get this under control or our response will be severe."

With that, Blake digitized and disappeared.

"Godammit, Brick", yelled Mordecai over Echo, raising his sniper up at the largest buzzard. "Call this off or I'm shooting down your buzzards."

"You can't shoot down _these_ buzzards", said Brick from the command Hub of the largest buzzard ever scrapped together. "This is THE Ultimate Badass Buzzard! State of the Art in Slab Flight vehicles! It takes three of my best pilots to fly it!"

He looked down on his pilots below him in their chairs. One of them looked back for a second and he exchanged a thumbs up sign with him.

"You idiot", yelled Mordecai. "That piece of crap wouldn't stand up to Hyperion's ships! You're screwed if they bring out their big guns!"

The Ultimate Badass Buzzard demolished a solitary Constructor with three plasma missiles.

"You take that back, Mordy", shouted Brick.

"Stand down, Brick", yelled Lilith over ECHOnet, "or I will teleport there and personally kick your ass."

* * *

Bandits of all types began to parachute down from the buzzards: Psychos, midgets, nomads, goliaths and bruisers. They descended on the hapless Hyperion workers, security and loaders like a horde of cannibalistic rapist thugs. Oh, yeah; they _were_ a horde of cannibalistic rapist thugs.

* * *

"Don't you get it", shouted Brick. "I'm sending a message to all these corporations! This is what happens when you come to Pandora and think we're just treasure to plunder! Either Hyperion leaves behind all of their tech or I will never stop until they're all dead!"

Claptrap suddenly flew through the air and into the fray.

"I'm back for revenge, you creator scum", he yelled. "Viva la Robolution!"

"Good thing Blake wasn't here for _that_", commented Lilith.

A porthole opened on the back of Claptrap's head that extended a third arm. This arm hurled a ball of slag through the air. This splattered all over the main constructor that was creating loaders. A group of bandits proceeded to dismantle the constructor.

"Error Error Error", howled the constructor in its deep, robotic voice.

* * *

Gaige ran across the battlefield, shooting the arms off of loaders left and right and shooting down Surveyors with her Teapot pistol; Deathtrap was following closely behind.

"I'm the most dangerous girl alive", exclaimed Gaige as she melted the eye of a Badass Loader, causing it to blow up.

"Oh, you're wrooooooong, sissy", cooed a familiar voice over the Echonet. "You're wrooooong!"

"Um, Brick", said Lilith. "Did you seriously bring Tiny Tina?"

"Hell yes", answered Brick. "What did you want me to do? Leave her?"

"Uhhhh…yes!"

Tina was lone-piloting a buzzard that was moving a lot slower than the others due to the sheer amount of colorful, homemade explosives attached to the exterior.

"Don't you know, Hyperion", she yelled. "You mess with my big sissy, you will be DISARMING A BOMB WITH YOUR FACES!"

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert_:

Tiny Tina as _the Tyke Bomb who makes Bombs_: **You see what happens when you teach Honey Boo Boo Child how to make a bomb?!**

Tina swept over a large area of loaders, dropping a large amount of pink bunny bombs and technological murder in her wake.

"Bomb bomb bomb", Tina sang as she swung her buzzard around in a U-Turn. "Bomb bomb ba bomb-bomb! Bomb bomb bomb! Bomb bomb ba bomb-bomb! Bomb-Bomb, Bomb-Bomb! Bomb-Bomb, Bomb-Bomb! Hey, guys; how do you like my bomb song! I think it'll be #1 hit! Sir Reginald says it's uncivilized! Don't you dare tell him I'm singing it!"

* * *

Salvador slung a caustic singularity grenade that pulled a group of loaders together. He mowed down the ones that weren't destroyed in the blast with his dual assault rifles. Most of the ejected rounds on the battlefield came from his weapons.

* * *

A squad of security engineers was exchanging fire with a group of bandits from behind cover.

"We're getting slaughtered out here", one of them shouted. "We have to fall back to the Constructor Center!"

"Is Hyperion picking up us up in a transport craft", asked another.

Behind them, the only remaining two large transport crafts began to lift in the air after Loaders secured a single constructor in each of them.

"Don't count on that", said the squad leader. "We're falling back! Anderson and Philips, cover our retreats! Two more will cover yours and so on!"

"I don't get paid enough for this", shouted Philips.

"But you get paid", answered the squad leader before patting Philips on the shoulder. "We're going to make it!"

As the squad ran backwards fifty meters until they found more cover, Philips and Anderson stayed behind to provide cover fire at the bandits and even Salvador. When the squad called out to them, the two fell back and so on.

* * *

Another engineer squad wasn't doing so hot. They were disorganized as most engineer units were; getting demolished by a Caustic Goliath. He was soaking up their shots and chopping up whomever he could get his hands on with two nasty triple-toothed blades he carried in his hands. Those who fell in range, he puked acid onto, making them wish he _did_ chop them up with his blades.

"Don't run", said the goliath in a dopey voice.

The group tried to retreat from him inappropriately and when one of them ran, he fired his gun backwards over his left shoulder at the Goliath. A couple of the rounds managed to glance him in the mask; at first bouncing off before actually knocking his mask off.

"Goddamn you", said the goliath as his head and spinal column painfully extended much more than it should, above his shoulders. "GODDAMN YOU!"

He chased down the engineer squad and puked a large amount of acid onto the straggling one before moving on to the next and knocking him off his feet with a single slap. He stood over him and slammed both fists over his face, crushing his head.

He grew dramatically in size from this kill and chased the remainder of the squad down.

* * *

"Do you know what you're doing, Brick", asked Mordecai. "Hyperion isn't going to go straight after us! They're going to hit civilians first! What about them, man?"

Brick had the Ultimate Badass Buzzard lower to the ground slowly before turning his Echo communicator off. Mordecai and Lilith were growing annoying to him.

"They're basically done for, boys", he said to his pilots. "I'm going down to claim our spoils. I'm proud to call you slabs."

"We love you, king", one of the pilots called back.

"That brings a tear to my eye", Brick said as he wiped a single eye. He then hopped off the side of the buzzard before crouching down as he landed on his feet.

He turned and began to jog towards the Construction Center, taking his spiked sledgehammer off of his back. It was his only weapon; it belonged to the former king of the unified bandit clans, Sledge. Sledge didn't think Brick had a chance against him but he was proven so wrong when Brick singlehandedly beat him to death with his bare fists and scattered the clans into factions. Nobody thought Brick would ever become the leader of his own bandit faction. Now that he was, he wondered how powerful the clans would be reunified under his rule.

He happened across a few engineers, who were shooting down a slab until he swung his hammer upwards and knocked one of them upwards in the air. He swung across the back of the head of another, killing him. He then punched another in the face with the force that was comparable to getting hit by a runner. He continued past them, destroying every enemy in his wake as he rallied a group of slabs to follow him to the Construction Center.

* * *

Mordecai attempted to track Brick with his sniper scope but settled for taking out some of the slabs following him. He saw Brick enter the Construction Center after smashing the control panel. Some attempted to return fire but they didn't what they were really shooting at and missed by a good fifty meters.

"Take out as many of them as you can", Mordecai told Zer0. "I'm going to have a little chat with my old friend."

"Ghosting", said Zer0, nodding as he activated Decepti0n.

Mordecai picked up and began to sprint across the field.

* * *

Salvador was killing in one direction, when he noticed the caustic goliath spraying acid over slabs a ways behind him. He grew irritated at this and turned his fire on the goliath. At this point, the goliath was twice the size of Brick in height and width.

"YOU BETTER GODDAMN SCREAM FOR ME", he screamed as he lunged in the air for Salvador. Salvador jumped and rolled out of the way as the monster pounded his fist straight down where he was just at.

"I'M GOING TO MAKE IT SLOW FOR THAT, BITCH", shouted the monster as he turned towards Salvador.

Salvador spit off to the side and threw his guns down.

"OK", he said, taking out a twelve-inch blade. "Let's make this interesting."

The monster turned and lunged for him again but Salvador rolled off to the side of the beast. As he rolled past him, he sliced into the monster's right ankle with his sword. As big as the goliath was, it made it hard for him to change directions and Salvador had fought enough of them to know this. He made him just that more immobile.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT IN BLOOD", shouted the goliath as he ran for Salvador again, this time puking acid in his direction.

Salvador responded by rolling out of the way but hurling the blade at the goliath's ankle. It hit exactly the same spot and embedded itself into his bone. The goliath yelled and fell forward on his hands and knees. Salvador ran forward and yanked the knife out of his leg. He then used the knife, stabbing it into the goliath's back, to climb atop him. The goliath stood up and frantically attempted to shake Salvador off of him.

"I'LL REND YOUR INTESTINES", shouted the goliath, frantically reaching back for him.

He couldn't because Salvador's knife was impaled in him and his arms were too massive to reach him. Salvador reached his shoulder blades and grabbed the goliath by his extended spinal column, freezing him in his tracks. He then began sawing through the nerve, causing the goliath to spasm. After a few seconds, he detached the goliath's head and extended nerve, before leaping from his back. The goliath stood on his feet for a few more seconds before falling, the body dead. As his body began to stop working, the powerful acids in him began to eat the rest of his body rapidly and he began dissolving.

Salvador looked at the bloody skull with the corded nerve in his hands for a second before hurling it away and walking off to grab his guns. One of the best kills he's ever had.

* * *

"Can you stop following me, please", Gaige asked Tina as she moved towards the Construction Center. Claptrap and Deathtrap were off killing loaders.

"No way", said Tina as her buzzard crept slowly behind Gaige. "You're my sissy and sissies stick together til' the end! Ride or Die; homies for life!"

"You're not my sissy", said Gaige. "You've never been my sissy. Go away."

Tina laughed this off.

"You so funny", she said.

* * *

As Claptrap was firing his rocket cannons at a badass loader, Zer0 appeared from his Decepti0n and sliced him nearly in half with his sword. He cut him off from his hover cell, leaving him immobile on the ground. Fortunately, Zer0 also sliced through the Badass Loader, so he didn't just leave him to die.

"Not again", Claptrap whined, looking up at the sky. "Minion, you're under arrest for being a traitorous turncoat! If you prop me up so I can keep killing, all will be forgiven! If not, suffer my wrath! I'll give you three seconds! 3…2…1! Okay; you asked for it! Mechromancer, help!"

"What", asked an annoyed Gaige. She turned around in time to see Deathtrap release a death grunt as Zer0 sliced him cleanly in half.

"No no no no no", shouted Gaige as she ran towards him. "What are you doing, you bastard? You're supposed to be on _our_ side!"

She held back tears as she fired several caustic rounds right through Zer0's chest. It turned out to be a Decepti0n clone.

"My apologies, sweet angel", whispered Zer0 into Gaige's ear as he reappeared behind her and put her in a rear naked choke. Gaige struggled in Zer0's grasp for a few seconds but she quickly passed out. He then dragged her over to the Badass Loader remains and left her beneath them for protection.

Tiny Tina's buzzard locked in on Zer0.

"What do I spy with my main eye", she asked over Echo. "A backstabbing vault hunter who's gonna die for hurting my sissy!"

She fired five rockets at Zer0, who turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. He zigzagged to escape them one by one. When they all exploded, he turned with his Thunder Flying God Striker sniper rifle and fired four rapid-fire, accurate shots into Tina's right turbine engine. It exploded.

"Gah", shouted Tina as her buzzard took a violent dip to the left. She jerked the control to the right, attempting to steady it. The buzzard error alarm started blaring.

"Error error error", shouted an automated voice from the control's speakers as sparks began to shoot out that threatened to burn Tina's hands.

"This buzzard's going to crash, you idiot", shouted the bandits' pre-recorded message. "BAIL!"

"Gah", shouted Tina as she looked over the side. She was too low to parachute down so she just jumped. Unfortunately, she landed horribly on one leg and cried out in pain as she rolled to the ground. She dragged herself away to a downed loader as her buzzard crashed and exploded multiple times.

* * *

The fighting was coming to an end. Hyperion's abandoned forces were nearly wiped out; they had retreated to the Construction Center Building but Brick's slabs followed. His buzzards were landing outside and slabs were shooting any wounded Hyperion personnel they found and looting the bodies.

* * *

Brick led a gathering of his Slabs through Hyperion's halls. They passed one corridor that held a hidden Constructor that activated upon seeing them.

"Deploying missiles", it said in a digital voice.

Brick answered by hurling his hammer at it and smashing its giant eye. He then looked over to their immediate left and saw a large, dividing twenty-foot tall door labeled with Hyperion. It looked interesting.

"Get that door opened, slabs", he commanded his men as he went over to grab his hammer from the constructor.

"I got it", said a marauder.

That marauder, who used to be a Crimson Lance engineer and happened to be a tech genius, stepped to the lock panel and configured his wrist Tech Moderator to rapidly scan the door's code and narrow down its possible combinations. It simulated inputting them all until it found the correct one. He input the final code and watched as the doors began to spread.

* * *

Mordecai entered the Construction Center and checked his corners, trying not to get sneak-killed. The halls were so huge. He heard gunfire and screaming in the distance.

* * *

"Please", pleaded a female researcher as she was struggling with some slabs in the Command Hub Brick just opened. "We were trying to leave! We didn't do anything!"

They had already gunned down all of the men and took hold of the women, lifting them up over their shoulders.

"Load the women onto the buzzards", Brick ordered. "Take everything that isn't bolted down! Shoot everything that is!"

They proceeded to follow his orders.

Salvador sat in a corner, smoking a cigar. He honestly didn't care either way but he was not going to take part in it.

"Brick", shouted Mordecai as he entered the room with his sniper trained on him. "Stop this now!"

A bandit grabbed Mordecai's sniper rifle as he walked by but Mordecai wrenched it up and hit the bandit in the face with it, knocking him to the ground. Another shot at him but his shield absorbed it and Mordecai responded with a quick close range shot to the head. Yet, another attempted to hack at Mordecai with his machete. Mordecai blocked his chops with his rifle until he just managed to unsheathe his own knife, spin backwards to dodge another chop and slashed him across the throat backhanded. The bandit fell over to the side, clutching his gushing neck.

"Enough, slabs", yelled Brick as he began to walk across the room to Mordecai.

"What the hell do you think you're doing", asked Mordecai. "You just voided the ceasefire! Now, you're kidnapping women! What's wrong with you?"

"Hyperion drew first blood against us", Brick said. "They nearly killed us and now that they're bleeding, you want to let them off easy? No. I say my slabs deserve a little reward for all their hard work."

The slabs mostly chuckled in response.

"And you", Mordecai asked Salvador.

"Man, I don't care about them", answered Salvador, referring to the women. "Blood, guts, sex and treasure; screw everything else."

"Wow", said Mordecai. "I guess morality and human decency doesn't come in at all, huh?"

Salvador laughed at him and exhaled smoke from his nose.

"See, I see you offworlders come and go", he said. "Just when I think you get it, you prove me wrong. I was born and shaped here. Morality? Decency? Pandora will eat anyone who has it. Hyperion learned this the hard way. After all this time, it seems you _still_ have to learn it."

Lilith appeared in the room with a Siren's telltale purple glow, fiery wings and all.

"You're done here, Brick", said Lilith.

"You don't tell me what to do, anymore", Brick said, approaching Mordecai and Lilith.

"I'm not trying to control your life, Brick", said Lilith. "Though, I do wonder about your choices, this is just wrong."

"How many did we kill before we opened the first vault, huh", asked Brick. "What makes _their_ lives more valuable? They're not innocent! They're Hyperion!"

Mordecai took out his knife and hurled it at Brick's face. The blunt side hit him right in the temple. He actually fell to the ground, dazed, leaving his slabs in shock. Nobody could topple their king; until now.

Mordecai quickly ran over and put his boot on Brick's chest before putting his rifle to Brick's head and loading a round into the chamber.

A few bandits raised their guns but Lilith's fiery wings reached the thirty-foot ceiling in an awesome display.

"Stand down, slabs", she commanded. "This is just a friendly conversation between old friends. No need for everybody to burn."

Brick laughed at Mordecai.

"Really", he asked. "You're gonna shoot me, Mordy? After all the times I saved your life?"

"That road runs both ways", answered Mordecai.

"I've definitely saved both of your lives countless times", chimed in Lilith.

Nobody said anything for a second.

"You're right", she said. "Go on."

"No slab, including you, will step foot on Sanctuary", said Mordecai. "Anybody who does, will be shot."

"You're tryin' to ban me", chuckled Brick. "You're not Roland."

"Yeah, you're right", Lilith said. "Roland would've killed you for pulling this crap. Seriously, Brick, what's gotten into you?"

Brick didn't say anything for a long time.

"We're done", he said, defiantly. "So, what's the deal?"

Lilith sighed.

"Okay", she said. "If you want to play it that way, Brick; you can have all the tech you want but not the women. They're coming with us until we can get in contact with Hyperion and get them home."

"Fine", Brick said.

"King", protested one of the bandits.

"Let them go", Brick said. "They can have the girls. There'll be others."

Mordecai backed off of Brick, who pushed himself to his feet and stared down Mordecai.

"Come on, ladies", said Lilith to about a dozen female researchers and technicians. "We're gonna get you home."

"Thank you", one of them said, bowing at the waist towards Lilith as she lead them from the building. Another turned and gave the slabs the finger.

Salvador nonchalantly watched all of this as he smoked his cigar to a nub. He put it out on his wrist and flicked it to the floor. He then began to follow them.

Brick and Mordecai shared one last glare before Mordecai walked away.

"What are you waiting for", Brick said to his slabs. "Let's get this tech on the buzzards!"

* * *

Lilith had the Vault Hunters gathered at Crimson Raider HQ.

"Before we start", she said, "we have to do something first."

She walked over to Salvador and Gaige.

"Both of you from here on out are not crimson raiders", she said. "You will have no input here, you will not be allowed back inside this building; you're lucky I'm letting you stay in Sanctuary."

"Can I say something", asked Gaige.

"No", was Lilith's immediate answer. She walked away from them back to her place at the table.

"Bye", she said, trying to get them to leave.

Gaige looked at Salvador, who simply shrugged and gently pushed her towards the door. They quietly left.

"Now we can begin", said Lilith after a sigh of relief.

* * *

The five vault hunters met up at a booth in Moxxi's. They drunk their beers in silence except Zer0, who was playing a game on his digipad and Gaige, who was doing shots of liquor made from a stinging cactus called Zapper.

"What a day, huh", offered Axton. "First, it rains; then _that_ happened. It got out of hand, huh?"

Gaige didn't say anything. She wasn't actually seated in a seat but sitting up on the back of the booth seat, above them. She just stared at Zer0 and slowly downed her Zapper shot.

"Come on", said an annoyed Maya. "Will you two just talk about it already?"

"Zer0", Gaige said making Zer0 look up from his game, "what you did to Deathtrap and me was unforgiveable meaning that I will never forgive you."

Three red Z's displayed in front of Zer0's mask.

"You better not ever sleep, %#*&%$ $&%#%", she calmly said as she poured herself another shot and downed it.

"Okay", said Maya. "Stop it. I know we're all down but I have something that'll cheer us up. Tannis thinks there might be another vault _here_."

"Where", asked Salvador, sitting up.

"The highlands", said Maya.

Salvador sat back again, waving that off and taking a gulp of his beer.

"See, that's what I thought", said Axton. "Until she brought up that there could be underwater vaults."

Zer0, Gaige and Salvador all stopped and looked at Axton.

"So", Axton said with a cocky smile, "you all in?"

"Are we telling Lilith", asked Gaige.

"Definitely not", said Maya.

"Then hell's yeah", answered Gaige.

That was how the vault hunters discovered their new purpose.

* * *

Next on Borderlands 2: The Series

_What is in the Highland Waters and Why is Hyperion afraid of one of their own security chiefs. _


	5. Episode 2, Part 1

It was a beautiful morning in the floating city of Sanctuary. Maya and Lilith were at Crimson Raider HQ, leaning over the balcony and watching the town below.

People were moving through the streets, talking of their adventures, trading goods and generally being happy that they're alive.

"So when and where are you going to land this city", Maya asked. "You think it's time they found a real home?"

"I haven't decided yet", Lilith answered. "I mean, a floating city? It's fantastic, isn't it? I do get what you mean, though. We have to land _somewhere_."

She then paused to look back at Sanctuary's citizens.

"Look at them", Lilith said to Maya. "Pandora doesn't have to be such a savage place where people just screw each other over. There's an actual community here."

"Um", Maya said, "are you sure about that?"

She pointed out a gathering group of people in front of the butcher's shop. Two men were shoving each other as they were arguing about something. One of the men pulled out a revolver and tried to point it at the other before the other caught his wrist and forced him to shoot it in the air.

"Hey", shouted Lilith, almost immediately catching their attention. "Hey! Don't make me come down there!"

They raised their hands up in surrender.

"Sorry, sweetheart", one of them yelled up to her. "This guy is just a retard!"

The other guy turned and punched him right in the face.

"Okay", Lilith said, pointing to one of them. "_You_ go down the street! And _you_…you…you stay right there for a little while! If I hear about any more problems between you two, I'm going to kill you both!"

One of the men, along with a group of four others begrudgingly began moving down the street.

"You want to know why these people do everything you say", asked Maya. "They're all in love with you."

"Oh, yeah", Lilith said, turning to her playfully. "How do you explain the women?"

"The women are, _too_!"

The two had a hard chuckle about that before Maya calmed down because she had something on her mind.

"Have you ever thought about what I asked", Maya wondered. "About my meditations?"

"Not now, Maya", said Lilith, rubbing her neck and walking away.

"When, then?"

"Never", Lilith said as she walked over to her refrigerator and poured herself a glass of Dimleaf tea, which has a minty taste.

"Lil", Maya said, following her to the refrigerator, "you act like you don't care about other sirens. Didn't you tell me that was the whole reason why you came to Pandora?"

"Yeah", Lilith said as she took a gulp of her tea. "After I came to this planet, the only other siren I ever met wanted me dead. Another turned out to be a manipulated woman-child who played me like a sucker the whole time. Four years later, I met an angel. That's one out of three. I'm not real fond of those odds."

"You're a pessimist", Maya accused.

"No", Lilith said, walking away from her, back to the table. "I've just seen a lot. What I've seen tells me there's no real connection between us sirens besides these tattoos."

"How can you say that when I can clearly hear them whenever I close my eyes", Maya said. "I don't even think they're on this planet."

"Well, I can't hear them", said Lilith.

"Because you don't want to", Maya said.

"Maya, _stop_", Lilith said directly to her face. "I'm not talking about this with you anymore. That's final."

"Fine", Maya said before turning and leaving.

"Maya", Lilith said, "where are you going?"

"I need some space", said Maya as she was descending the stairs.

Lilith followed her to the stairs but didn't follow beyond that.

"Fine", said Lilith. "Just don't forget about the women scientists in town. Hyperion hasn't answered me yet but when they do I'm going to need you around."

"Okay", Maya answered and left.

As she walked away, Maya realized that she and Lilith had grown to be two very important people. Both of them came to Pandora for answers but Lilith had found something she cared for more than figuring out her origins. The sirens and the vaults weren't as important to Lilith as they used to be and Maya couldn't imagine that. They would never stop being important to her.

* * *

"Where are we with that Highlands business", Maya asked Axton in Tannis' apartment.

Axton was watching Dr. Tannis building what looked like some kind of golem made out of rocks on her kitchen table.

"What is she doing", asked Maya.

"Shhhhh", whispered Axton. "I want to see where this goes."

However, she stopped in her tracks before she went any further and knocked all of the rocks off of her table for seemingly no reason at all.

"Now that that's settled", she said. "There's the business of our aquatic gear, isn't there? There's a man out in the Highlands who has somehow gotten ahold of my EchoNet address. The imbecile keeps talking into my ear about how he survived a direct shot from a rocket and he wants to take me swimming in the Highland Ocean. I do have to admit that at times, it's a little flattering."

"So the doc has found herself a boyfriend", wondered Axton. "Nice."

Dr. Tannis found herself eyeing one of her rocks. Axton followed her eyes.

"Don't even think about it", he warned her.

"I wouldn't ever", said Tannis. "I mean about him, not about stoning you. The man calls himself Rocket-Tooth Joey."

"Rocket-Tooth Joey", asked Axton, laughing. "Wow."

"He goes on and on about swimming in that ocean", she continues. "I think we could use some of that gear of his to take a look into those waters. You should go pay him a visit. He managed to stay off of Hyperion's radar and away from Overlook. You can beat him up a little if you want to; I think I would really enjoy that. Please return once you acquire the equipment. You are _not_ going down without me."

"What do you say", Axton asked Maya.

"Let's round up the gang", Maya answered.

* * *

"I got this beauty in yesterday", Marcus said holding up a high-caliber revolver with a twelve round barrel. He let the barrel spin a few times before setting it down on his counter. He was in his shop, behind the cage with his favorite customer (who Marcus is talking to is generally his favorite customer), Salvador. "It might not be able to shoot the wings off of a butterfly but it'll definitely blow the brains out of any Hyperion goon."

"We're in a ceasefire", Salvador said, pulling a box of cigars out of his SDU. "Not that I'm going to let that stop me."

Marcus guffawed loudly at that.

"So", Marcus said, leaning closer to the cage and Salvador, "have you seen some of the delicious fruit in town from Hyperion. Who could've Hyperion was hiding sweets like that. I saw one this morning gazongas like…"

Marcus cupped his hands six inches away from his chest to illustrate.

"If you didn't notice", Salvador said. "You're probably a eunuch."

Marcus laughed again.

_Reintroduction Alert, Reintroduction Alert:_

Marcus as _the gun dealer you hate (to love)_: **Voted Most Likely to survive an all-out war between the bandits and the vault hunters…yeah…he's a bastard.**

"I really do like you, Salvador", Marcus asked after he settled down. "Now, what do you have for _me_."

Salvador opened a box of his cigars and pushed across the counter to Marcus. Marcus cautiously took a long whiff of it.

"Oooh Mami", was his response.

"It's made from firemelon leaves", Salvador said. "Burns slow but it's intoxicating. It has an adrenaline kick. I should know; I smoke them everyday."

"And you'll give them to me", Marcus asked.

"I'm not just giving them to you, mijo", Salvador said, reaching up and sliding the revolver away from Marcus. "I'm letting you keep that as store credit, you would say. You would say that, right?"

"Of course", Marcus said. "You are much too generous. My best customer; the best."

"Don't lie to me, Marcus", Salvador said, spinning the barrel himself. "I know you say that to everybody you see; including our enemies."

"What", asked Marcus, nervously. "Come on, Vault hunter. You know I have to make a living."

"Fine", Salvador said, "just don't tell me it's sunshine and beers between us right before you stab me in the cajones."

"I'm not trying to stab you anywhere, vault hunter", Marcus said.

"Good", answered Salvador. "You can deal with the slabs but if I find out you're dealing with any of the other clans: the sawteeth, the rippers, any of them; I'm going to take one of those cigars and put it out in your eyes. Then I'm going to take this gun and shoot you with it until you almost die. You won't be dead though, because I still have my knife…"

"Okay, okay, okay", cut in Marcus, holding up his hands in surrender. "I get it; no more bandits."

"I'm glad you get it", said Salvador, taking out another firemelon cigar and lighting it in his mouth. "Enjoy those cigars." With that, Salvador turned and walked up the stairs out of Marcus' shop.

* * *

The group used the Fast Travel Station to get to the Highlands where they huddled to sort out gameplans and possible battle strategies. The mission was to track down this Rocket-Tooth Joey.

"What the hell is that supposed to be", asked Axton upon seeing Maya's new shotgun she acquired from their giant stalker.

"I got it from the stalker", answered Maya.

The others moaned in self-kicking realization.

"I hate you", commented Gaige in semi-jealousy.

"I looked it up", said Maya. "It's called a Vital Boreinator; manufactured by Maliwan. It's a fire elemental; fires three rounds at once and every hit is a critical regardless of where you hit."

"That's redick", said Gaige.

A question mark appeared in front of Zer0's mask.

"That's short for ridiculous", answered Gaige.

"Okay", Axton said, "we're going to be in a technical anyway but if we caught out in the open…"

Axton took a rock and began to draw illustrations in the damp dirt.

"I will, of course, throw up the phalanx", he said, drawing five stick figures along with a dome figure over them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa", Gaige interrupted. "Time out; foul; Cut the music; all of that mess. Where is Deathtrap?"

"What you talking 'bout", Zer0 said, "I mean, seriously? You will like, what, die?"

"No, Zer0", said Gaige through gritted teeth, "I will not die but if Deathtrap isn't represented I'm going to have to claw somebody."

Salvador exhaled some smoke over the entire area and all of their faces in response, causing Gaige to angrily wave it away.

"Fine", Axton said, drawing a taller stick figure next to their representations. "Are you happy?"

"Mildly", answered Gaige.

"Anyway", Axton said, "Maya and her 'Boreinator' are on main assault."

"Don't forget _me_, amigo", said Salvador, exhaling some smoke from his nostrils.

"You're on secondary assault", Axton assured him.

"I'm never secondary", answered Salvador.

"Gaige", Axton said, "you sit tight while Deathtrap gets up close from outside the dome."

"What did you say", asked Gaige.

"He's a weapon", Axton said. "You can always digistruct him again."

"He's not just a weapon", said Gaige. "If Deathtrap's outside the dome, _I'm _outside the dome."

"Zer0", Axton said, "you're playing cleanup; picking off everybody the others leave behind." He drew some lines representing bullets coming from all of them.

"This plan freaking sucks", Zer0 replied. "That's not how we work at all; That's just some ***** ****."

Axton looked at all of them for a second before standing and hurling the rock in the air behind them. It was a pretty good throw that got some distance. He then swept the stick figure drawing away with his boot and kneeled down with the rest of them. He lowered his head down in frustration. Maya patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"I try to add some order to the way we usually do things", Axton said, "and this is the thanks I get.

"I know", said Maya, still patting him.

" Screw it", he said, rubbing his hair. "We'll just run and gun like we always do."

"You can cry if you want to", Maya told him, drawing chuckles from the others.

"Vault hunters", a familiar voice called over the EchoNet, "V-Vault Hunters. P-p-please come i-in."

"Kharima", asked Maya. "Is that you? Are you stuttering again?"

"It's th-the skull…shivers", Kharima said. "They're…back. The medicine's n-not working any…more. Please help us."

* * *

"Come on, Maya", Axton pleaded like a child, hopping and everything, "let's just gooooooo. Rocket-Tooth Joey? The Ocean? Underwater vault? Any of this ring a bell?"

Maya had dragged the others to Overlook because she didn't want to leave the inhabitants to suffer. It's _dragged_ because nobody else wanted to go but Maya had a sort of black hole-like pull over them where she could basically bend them to her goodwill. Four of them watched while Maya walked up the steps to Kharima's house. They noticed that the loudspeakers in the town still played Hyperion's threats and messages of false concern.

"These poor people", Maya said. "They still haven't been outside. It's still deserted and the speakers are still playing those awful messages."

She walked over to a speaker and blew it up with her Boreinator.

"Don't waste shells on _that_", whined Axton.

"Help me", ordered Maya to the others as she ran over to another speaker and raised

"Hyperion wishes to remind you that we hurt you because we lov-",one of the speakers bellowed before it was blown away by Maya's Boreinator.

Salvador and Zer0 moved to destroy the others.

"We don't owe these people anything", Axton said. "We got rid of Hyperion for them; we got them their medicine and we built their shield."

"You know what, Ax", Maya said as she came back to Kharima's house, "The underwater vault if it exists, isn't going anywhere! It would take a long time to open the damn thing anyway! We'd have to charge a key! It isn't going anywhere, but these people...they're suffering and it could be our fault. Damn Ax, sometimes I really don't like you."

Axton was going to ask about the other times but decided to hold his tongue.

"Kharima, honey", Maya called after knocking on her door. "Come outside."

"No", she said.

"Come on", Maya said. "Hyperion is leaving Pandora. Why are all of you still couped up in your homes?"

Kharima's doorlocks slowly came undone and her door slowly crept open. She poked her head out a little bit.

"Did you see the rain", asked Maya.

"Yes", Kharima said. "I-It was beau-ti-ti-ful. We even let down the s-s-shield."

"Please stop making her talk", mumbled Gaige under her breath, earning a cold glare from Maya.

"I-I don't re-remember d-d-dancing for so…long", she continued. "Ever s-since then, the medicine's stopped…working. It d-doesn't help."

"Damn", Maya said, "there was definitely something up with that rain."

"Maybe it was just bad timing", Gaige suggested. "Maybe the skull shivers is just inflamed by rain."

"Maybe", agreed Maya. "Kharima, have you tried to contact Hyperion; tell them about the situation?"

"Th-they won't take any of our calls", she said. "It must b-be a…grudge."

"The new president", said Zer0. "He's called Jeffrey Blake, I think. He's…reasonable."

"Jeffrey Blake", Salvador said. "I've heard that name before."

"Lilith and the others mentioned him a bunch of times", Maya said. "He's not a sociopath so that's good."

"So what now", asked Gaige.

"We pay Hyperion a visit", Maya said.

"We don't…have much money t-t-t-t-to pay you w-w-w-with", she stammered, "but t-there's still the eridium mine n-n-nearby. It's yours. Thank you. F-for everything."

"It's no problem", said Maya with a smile.

"Awwwww", Axton whined. "I was hoping for money."

* * *

While a Hyperion transport ship carrying a load of generators began to ascend in the Arid Badlands-Fyrestone, two Hyperion security officers were standing on guard and chit-chatting.

"Did you catch that Holeball match last night between Athenas and Themas last night", one of them said. "It was intense."

"Nah", said the other. "I was up all night EchoChatting with the wife. She's a bitch."

"Oh snap crackle pop", one yelled out when he saw the vault hunters approaching and lifted his rifle up at them. "The ceasefire, bandits; remember the ceasefire."

"Calm down, puto", soothed Salvador. "We not going to shoot you in the face…_today_."

"Is Blake here", asked Maya.

"What", one said. "No, he's not here! What are you, stupid? Hey, Julio!"

Another Hyperion security officer, presumably Julio, behind them was surveying JNK loaders strap down a pallet of generators. He looked over at them.

"What", he called over.

"This siren chick just asked us if Blake is here", said the officer. "What a tool, right?"

Julio began laughing out loud.

"What an idiot", he yelled between laughs.

The officer they started the conversation with was laughing at them too, as well as pointing a finger directly in Maya's face. The other officer knew their reputation and knew they could kill them all within seconds so he wasn't laughing. He actually began to step away from the other one, not wanting to be caught in the mayhem of warfare surely about to occur. The laughing went on another ten seconds before the officer came down to a sigh.

"Best laugh I've had all week", he said.

Maya nodded and walked over to the Hyperion officers casually.

"Blake's not here", she said. "Fine."

She looked up at a small transport vessel in the distance. She raised her unclothed, tattooed arm and phaselocked it. It immediately combusted and erupted in flames, before crashing to the ground.

"The ceasefire doesn't extend to your ships, I hope", she said.

"Actually, it does", one said, in shock. "Dude, that ship was worth more than your life!"

"Well, either way", she continued. "I didn't technically open fire on you. Now, get Blake or some other high-ranking executive to meet us down here in person or I'm going to start breaking stuff."

"But…", one of them started.

"Now", she yelled in his face before she phaselocked another one of them to the ground.

"I can do this all day", she assured them.

"Don't sell yourself short", Axton said. "I've seen her do it all night too."

"Come on, guys", Maya said to the other vault hunters. "Let's find the most expensive thing we can find and blow it up."

"Hey", the officer said, putting them in his sights, "stop! I said stop!"

They walked past them without paying them any mind.

"I'm done talking", Maya said. "You know what I want."

"We're security", he said. "We can't just-".

The vault hunters walked off.

"We're so getting canned", said the officer.

* * *

Just as the vault hunters moved to the center of town, another ship appeared high above them. They looked up and saw it wasn't a bright yellow color like Hyperion but instead a deep orange. It had a black swirling sun symbol on the side. It had two large turbine-shaped cannons on either side as well as four mounted guns in the front; two above the cockpit and two underneath.

A question mark appeared on Zer0's mask.

"Who is that", asked Salvador.

"Who cares", answered Maya as she raised her hand and phaselocked the ship.

A wavering shield appeared around the ship, seeming to dissipate the phase field.

Maya brought down her hand slowly, in shock. A siren's field can be blocked? She had no idea.

"Nice try, siren", a male voice boomed down from the ship over Echo. "You were bound to see a day where your cheap tricks didn't work, weren't ya? The name's Adam Blitzfield, the leader of Helios. I'm not big on introductions so if you somehow manage to escape me, you can ask that coward Jeffrey Blake who we are. Good luck, though."

The Helios ship began to charge it's cannons on both sides with an experimental energy not seen on Pandora.

"Guys", Axton said, "I don't like the look of that."

Salvador pulled the Norfleet rocket launcher out of his storage deck and blasted the Helios ship. All three swirling projectiles hit the ship's shield but it exploded well short of the ship.

"Crap", one of the officers said, "it's Helios!"

The ship's cannons immediately decimated a nearby Hyperion pallet of generators and nearly destroyed the Vault Hunters themselves except that they all narrowly managed to jump out of the way.

They looked back and saw that it left a small, burning crater where they just were.

"Holy crap", yelled Gaige.

Helios then turned on the all of the shacks and Hyperion equipment in the town. The Vault Hunters turned tail and bolted past the security team.

"Hey, don't leave us", the security officer yelled right before he, the others and the JNK loaders were decimated by Helios' photon cannons.

* * *

The Helios vessel hovered over the aftermath of their destruction.

Adam looked down on the charred remains of Hyperion personnel and loaders, smiling beneath his helmet.

"Somebody call the local bandits", he said. "Breakfast is served."

"Sir", said one of his soldiers, "it's after noon."

"Who asked you", asked Adam, causing the man to back away. "I want a cleanup squad down there. If the vault hunters are dead, I want bodies."

* * *

"That escalated quickly", Axton said after the group emerged from the Fast Travel Station in Sanctuary.

"Do you think we can knock that shield down", asked Maya.

"I haven't seen a shield act like that before", answered Axton.

"We killed the Warrior and Terramorphus", said Salvador.

"With how many New U spawns again", asked Axton.

"Well, none on the Warrior", remembered Gaige.

"Guys", called Lilith over Echo, "where the hell have you been? I got in contact with Hyperion. They're willing to pick up the girls. We just need to escort them to the pick-up zone. Get your asses to HQ time yesterday."

"I guess that Adam pendejo is going to have to wait", said Salvador.

* * *

Helios left Fyrestone a charred heap. All of the makeshift building and Hyperion tech was incinerated. Helios commandos were now combing the charred carcasses for signs of the vault hunters. Among them was their fearless commander, Adam Blitzfield, who was armed with several artificial enhancements essential for tracking and killing. He wore a protective suit and a plasma lance across his back.

A lieutenant approached him.

"Done with your sweeps, lieutenant", he asked.

"Yes, sir", said the orange-armored lieutenant. "No vault hunters to be found, sir."

"Good", Adam said.

"Good, sir", asked the lieutenant. "I thought you wanted them…?"

"Not like this, lieutenant", said Adam. "I want them to see me coming and then die screaming knowing that they couldn't stop me."

He turned, looking out over the destroyed town of Fyrestone and whistled.

"This is a start, though", he said.


	6. Episode 2, Part 2

"So you're the vault hunters, huh", asked one of the rescued scientists outside of the Raiders HQ. "You lot don't look that impressive, I'd say."

The vault hunters were meeting with their quarries in the streets of Sanctuary. There were a few rubbernecker Raiders and townsfolk trying to get a glimpse of the new sensation so that they can gossip about it later to their friends. The vault hunters were preparing to escort the women to Opportunity in order for their arranged pick up by Hyperion.

"Dr. Parker, please", said a glasses-wearing colleague of hers, still in a lab coat. "I apologize for my associate. She's a botanist; she's really not used to talking to people."

"We have one of those", said Zer0. "She's an archaeologist. Strangest woman you'll meet."

"Yes", the fem-scientist said pushing her glasses up from the bridge of her nose, "I'm sure. I'm Dr. Tabitha Mooney. I'm a geologist. And you are?"

She offered a clean, manicured hand to Zer0. Salvador shook his head, not believing her luck. She was so lucky to be sheltered by Hyperion. She looked like a damn model. On _Pandora_. It baffled the hell out of him that she hadn't been raped and mutilated several times over yet.

"My name's simply Zer0", he said taking her hand in an agreeable gesture. "Where many have a name; I…am just a number."

Dr. Mooney paused for a second with her hand in Zer0's grasp.

"I'm sorry", she said, "I don't mean to come off as rude but do you only speak in haiku?"

Axton reached in and forcibly removed their hands from each other before Zer0 could render his either snarky and/or threatening retort.

"Okay", Lilith said, who was also present in front of the Raiders HQ, "you guys know your mission: escort the girls to Opportunity and get Blake to get the hell off this planet. I suggest you leave now. Oh, god…"

"What", asked Gaige, looking back where Lilith had turned her eyes away from, only to see Tiny Tina walk out of Zed's of all places, hobbling on crutches and a pink, bunny-decaled cast over her broken right leg. This was due to her fall from the buzzard during an attack on a Hyperion outpost. Tina was humming some crude song full of obscenities not even Salvador would repeat without wincing.

"Shhh", Gaige whispered at the others. "Maybe if we act as boring as possible, she'll lose interest and go away."

Tina looked around and spotted Gaige in the crowd. She got excited and began waving one of her crutches in the air.

"Hey, sissy", she shouted. "Sissy! Sisssssssy!"

"What", shouted Gaige in annoyance.

Tina then hobbled over to them, almost slipping in a puddle along the way.

"Suppity Sup Sup Sup, Vault Hunters", Tina greeted and reached out to them, holding out a black marker to them. "Will you sign my cast, big sissy?"

"If I do it, will you leave me alone", asked Gaige.

"Ummm", Tina said, thinking. "sure?"

"Forever", asked Gaige.

"Forevra", asked Tina, "like…a lifetime?"

"Yes, moron", said Gaige after moaning and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Forever generally means a lifetime."

"I can't do that", exclaimed Tina.

Gaige sighed and said, "Then just the rest of the day?"

"Fine", said Tina as she lifted her cast-covered right leg towards Gaige and awkwardly reached out with the black marker in one hand while holding the crutch. "Now sign my cast, big sis." She wiggled her multi-colored painted toes in Gaige's direction.

Gaige snatched the marker from a giddy Tina and kneeled down to sign her name on Tina's cast.

"Thankee-sai", said Tina. "Anybody else want to sign? Even those weirdos in the coats? You can sign too!"

Maya took the marker next and kneeled down to sign the cast. After signing it in big, loopy cursive letters, she held it out for Zer0.

"Your turn, I guess", she offered.

Tina's eyes suddenly went big and her fury shined through.

"Nevraaaaaaaaaaa", she shouted as she used a crutch to knock the marker out of Maya's hand and send it flying through the air where it landed helplessly on top of the roof of the Raiders HQ. Without her support, she then proceeded to fall ungracefully on her back with her casted leg pointing straight up in the air. Almost everybody

"Ouchies", she groaned.

Salvador and Axton reached down and helped her to her foot and crutches.

"He is a very bad man", said Tina to the others about Zer0, with him being to blame for her broken leg. "I'm watching you. If you ever do what you did again, I'm going to kick you in the balls so hard, you'll wish you were born a woman!"

Tina turned and began to crutch to the Fast Travel Station. Before she entered the Station center, she turned back toward the group.

"Oh, big sis", she shouted. "I'm having a tea party tomorrow! Remember to come, please!"

Gaige half-heartedly waved back, sending off Tina back to the Tundra Express.

"I don't act like that", Gaige assured herself. She turned to the others and asked them the question. "I don't act like that, do I?"

"Well…", said Axton, wavering his hand a little bit to suggest "kind of" as an answer.

"What was that about, anyway", asked Maya.

Gaige shifted her focus to Zer0.

"Well", she said, "this traitor right here totally boned me, Deathtrap and Claptrap; he knocked me out cold and I guess he made Tina break her leg or whatever."

Gaige saw the horrified look on the faces of her comrades and the scientists.

"Well, he didn't bone us _literally_", she said, blushing. "Look, he knows what he did."

"Yes, I played hero", Zer0 said. "Something you forgot to do. You acted rashly."

"Hah", exclaimed Dr. Mooney. "I knew it! He does only talk in haiku. Why is that?"

"What you guys did was really messed up", Lilith said to Gaige, ignoring Dr. Mooney. "You endangered a lot of lives and for what? Another shot at Hyperion? You nearly got these women raped by bandits. I really can't believe you, Salvador or Brick."

"How's Mordy taking that, by the way", asked Axton.

"I wish I could say he's sleeping off a hangover after getting thrown out of Moxxi's last night", Lilith answered with a sigh, "but I'm pretty sure he's digging into his personal stash of liquor now. So, no, he's not taking it well."

"Ouch", Axton replied.

"So", Maya said. "we escort these girls to Opportunity and get a nice payday?"

"Yep", Lilith said. "Exactly that. I know it sounds simple."

"Here's the thing", Maya brought up. "We were checking up on Overlook…"

"Without telling me", Lilith asked suddenly. It amused Maya how quickly she jumped on that.

"Yes", Maya continued. "We were checking up on Overlook and it turns out the townspeople are still sick with skull-shivers. The last shipment of medicine isn't working anymore. The skull-shivers reacted horribly to the rain or something and now the stuttering is worse than ever. If Hyperion leaves without helping them, they will die."

"Excuse me", another one of the scientists piped up.

"Wow", Lilith said, ignoring her. "That's horrible. I'm going to get on the Echo and talk to Blake about that."

"Another thing", Maya brought up. "We went to Fyrestone to see if we could get in contact with Blake but we ran into a little trouble…"

"Excuse me", the scientist yelled loudly.

"WHAT", shouted Maya and Lilith to her at the same time.

"I hate to break up your murderous war council", she said, "but we're missing somebody."

"Oh come _on_, Sandy", Dr. Mooney moaned. "She doesn't want to leave."

"The name's Dr. Albrecht, thank you very much", said the annoying scientist, introducing herself. "And how do you know she doesn't want to leave? She never said so; why don't you give her a chance to decide? Our friend, Dr. Shanna De Lumen, used to work at the Exploitation Preserve. She was with us when those filthy bandits came in and slaughtered everybody. She was the Head Veterinarian in charge of keeping the beasts alive. She's there every day now, doing God knows what. All I'm saying is we're not leaving without her."

"Dude, forget her", said another one of the scientists.

"Yeah", said another. "That chick never showers and she's annoying. Let her stay with her beasts."

Dr. Albrecht, who was in front of the other girls, crossed her arms in a show of defiance. The girls behind took offense to her deciding something like that for them and began grumbling and complaining about it. One of them shoved Dr. Albrecht in the back, causing her to stumble forward. She turned on them and leapt in the air for her.

"No pushing, you witch", Dr. Albrecht shouted. Some of the other girls caught her in mid-air. As she struggled against them, the scientist who pushed her reached up and began pulling her hair.

"Ladies, ladies", yelled out an annoyed Lilith to the fighting scientists. "That's enough!"

They didn't stop.

"So", Gaige said, casually, "to the Exploitation Preserve to grab that vet chick?"

"Yeah", said Lilith. "Be careful. Oh, and we'll talk about your little Overlook trip later."

"Can't wait", said Axton sarcastically.

The Vault Hunters walked to the Fast Travel Station as Lilith sprouted Siren wings in an attempt to scare the scientists into behaving.

* * *

"Aaaaand go" said Dr. Lumen to Vlad and Katya, two stalkers she had named and led to a hole in the Exploitation Preserve east borderwall that led to the Highlands-Outwash. Unfortunately, whenever she led them to the hole, they would just stare at her quizzically. She tried stepping slowly out of the wall to get them to follow.

"Now come", she said. "Come. Come."

They didn't come. She grew frustrated. Why didn't any of the animals want to leave? The only food they had was each other and she was sure they would become restless with the great but overall limited space the Preserve provided, so why didn't they want to leave? It baffled her; simply baffled her. She scratched her scalp and pulled some more skag gunk from her ragged, red braids. She had let Anya, one of the larger skags play with her hair. Anya liked to slosh her braided hair around in her mouth; it seemed to calm her. She never chewed on it, thank god. Giving her a single braid of her hair didn't work either. She tried to leave a severed braid for him but Anya still sought her out, tackled her and went back to sucking on her hair.

Suddenly, she noticed Vlad and Katya sniff the air behind her and snarl. Katya turned and crawled away to get in some kind of ambush position, while Vlad went into camouflage.

"What's wrong", she asked. "Oh."

She locked eyes with the approaching Vault Hunters.

"Woman", Salvador said, taking out two assault rifles. "Get down, there's stalkers!"

"No", she shouted. "Stop it, you idiots!"

Vlad appeared on a hill nearby and snarled again.

"You should really get out of here", said Gaige, aiming her caustic repeater at Vlad but talking to Shanna. "We don't want to hurt you."

Shanna ran over to the hill and stood between Vlad, Katya and the Vault Hunters. She threw out her arms and puffed out her chest.

"Lady", Maya yelled. "Get down! The stalkers…"

"Are my friends", she yelled with a thick accent. "You're just bandits with guns! So, if you're going to kill them, you're going to have to put a bullet through me first."

Her vehemence gave the vault hunters pause and made them hesitate. Dr. Shanna Lumen absolutely hated Handsome Jack while he was alive but she still worked for Hyperion after all. In her eyes, the vault hunters were just as bad if not worse than Jack's regime and the bandits. She had seen and heard of them killing innumerable Hyperion workers and worse yet, her beloved animals.

"What are you waiting for, murderers", she asked. "You already killed their mothers, fathers, elders, mates and children. Why not off them too? Just remember that you will also have to kill an unarmed woman as well. Give it to me, bandits."

"My aim is steady", Zer0 said, raising his electric Flying Thunder God sniper, "My decisions are swift yet just. Leave the beasts to me."

"I'm starting to see how full of himself Zer0 really is", remarked Gaige.

"You're one to talk", shot Salvador.

"Everybody calm the hell down", shouted Maya. She then looked at the defiant vet. "You're Dr. Shanna De Lumen, right?"

"And what of it, killer", asked Dr. De Lumen.

_Introduction Alert, Introduction Alert:_

Dr. Shanna De Lumen: **Because skags, stalkers, varkids, crystalisks, threshers, sand worms, bullymongs, crab worms, spiderants, rakks, rakk hives, and scythids are people too. Wait a second…**

"My people rescued you and your friends from the slabs", said Maya.

Shanna scoffed and turned her head up at this.

"Yes, the slabs", she said. "Your friends, right?" Katya snapped her jaws at the Vault Hunters in response to this.

"Well", Maya said, "sort of, but I'll admit they were wrong! Hyperion wants to pick you guys up in Opportunity and we'll take you there. You just have to come with us."

"I'm supposed to believe you", said Shanna. "That you won't betray me to the slabs; You'll have to kill me first."

"She's so willing to die", said Salvador. "We should just do it and tell them her stalkers turned on her."

"Look, lady", said a frustrated Axton, running a hand down his face, "I thought it was a little fun destroying loaders, constructors and all but frankly, I'm a little tired of dealing with you Hyperion types. We're all a little tired of this war. All I want is to find another vault and get my major payday. Now get down here or I'm going to shoot both of those stalkers in the head and drag you to Opportunity myself!"

"You want to stay _here_", asked Maya, ignoring Axton. "On Pandora? You won't even take a chance on us? Hyperion is finished here. What else is left for you here?"

Shanna looked over at Katya and Vlad before looking out over the ruined overpass and Exploitation facilities. She briefly remembered the horrors committed there by Hyperion, undoing all of her work.

"What else is left for _you_ here", Shanna asked Maya.

"Two days ago", Maya told her, "I wouldn't have had an answer for you. I came to this planet expecting to find some kind of destiny for myself, to discover something about my origins. I was a little disappointed to find out there is none of that here. Instead, I found a purpose in taking down that bastard Jack. After that, I discovered a thrill and a purpose I never thought I would ever feel: the vaults. I've seen them. The map of the other vaults. Seeing even a couple more of them would take a lifetime and I know I wouldn't live to see all of them, but I don't care."

She looked around at the others who shared the same gleam in their eyes, just thinking of the other vaults.

"I would die to see even one more vault", she said, "and even if I didn't make it, doing everything that I've done with my friends would have made it all worth it."

"So, just please tell us", Zero said, waving at her companions. "Do you feel the same for them? We'll gladly leave you."

"What'll it be, senora", Salvador. "We don't have all day."

Shanna looked at her companions once more.

"I choose to stay", Shanna said. "Even with Jack dead, I couldn't stand another second with those Hyperion oppressors-"

"Down with the empire", shouted Gaige suddenly, causing the others to turn and stare her down.

"Oops", she said, covering her mouth. "I didn't mean to be so _loud_."

Shanna said, pointing down at them.

"You have a lot to atone for too", Shanna said. "Do you even know how many innocent creatures you murdered in the name of your looting? Do you really think you're better than Jack or the bandits? You're worse! Do you hear me, you're worse…."

She continued this monologue but the vault hunters chose to turn inwards amongst themselves and ignore her.

"God", said Gaige. "Talk about a god complex. Look at her sitting on her little mound, throwing down life lessons and judgements on the oh-so-lowly and violent. Pfff. Like those stalkers are so innocent."

"So", Salvador said. "We go with the death by Stalker story?"

"Definitely", agreed Axton.

The five of them began to make their way out of the hole in the wall, intent on using the excuse that Dr. Lumen was eaten by stalkers.

"Oh", Shanna said, "so you can shoot a pen full of defenseless animals but you can't stand to have your morals questioned? Can't stand up to a debate without pulling a gun? Is that it? Well, you're cowards; all of you! Do you hear me; cowards!"

They all kept walking except for Salvador, who stopped in his tracks.

"Hey, just remembered something", he said, turning on his heels. "You're from Hyperion like Mr. Blake. Who is Helios? And…Adam…Blitzfield?"

Shanna stopped suddenly and the sudden silence caused the others to stop and turn.

"Did you just say…Helios", she asked. "How did you hear that name?"

She jumped down from the hill. Salvador approached her until she stood over him, peering down with blank, emerald green eyes. It was this close that Salvador first noticed her unique odor.

"A ship attacked us an hour ago in Fyrestone", Salvador said. "Someone called us over Echo calling himself 'Adam Blitzfield of Helios'. The ship destroyed everything. It was leaving craters."

Shanna jumped back suddenly as if he had hit her in the face. Her eyes were wide.

"Wait", she said. "They're _here_…with _him_?"

Before he could answer, she turned and ran right back up the hill. She kneeled down between the stalkers and placed her head between them and pulled their heads towards hers with her arms to form a big hug.

"I want you two to survive, you hear me", she told them, with tears forming in her eyes. "I know it's hard out there but I don't want you couped up in this pen one more second. I want you to go out, form a new clan, have lots of babies, and grow old. If you see any human, especially in an orange ship or orange armor, I don't want you to fight; _run_. You run, glide away, and camouflage and don't look back. Now, promise me you'll live. Promise that you'll stay strong for mommy. Vlad, stop eating runner tires; balance your diet."

Shanna hugged their necks tighter and Vlad gave a soft hacking cough in response while Katya gave a sharp exhale of breath. She then released down and reached behind her neck to take off her locket.

"Something to remember me by, my sweets", she said, putting the locket down on the ground for them. She then scampered back down the hill as the two stalkers both lunged for the locket at the same time. They struggled for a second before each of them grabbed one end of it. They then snapped it in two and swallowed their respective halves. When she reached the hole, she turned and blew them a kiss before departing with Salvador and the other vault hunters.

"Doc", asked Axton as they began walking the Highlands-Outwash plains, "this Helios outfit has you spooked, don't they? Care to tell us about them?"

"Well", Shanna said. "Where do I start?"

"I'm sorry", shouted Gaige, "but I just have to say something…this chick really stinks!"

The others told almost simultaneously to shut up as they wanted to know more about this Helios threat. To most humans, the odor Shanna was giving off was unbearable though.

As the vault hunters walked away with their veterinarian, a certain watcher was stalking them from inside the Preserve. A certain large loner of a female skag who happens to like to suck on a certain somebody's hair sniffed the air for her unique odor and pawed the ground in giddyness. Anya was of course eternally loyal to this woman and to think that these meatbags could take her away from her was infuriating to her. They wouldn't do it. Not on her next meal. She grunted her annoyance and moved to follow them.


	7. Episode 3, Part 1

"Have I told you the story of five vault hunters, a vain, ugly tyrant, and a warrior that could destroy a planet", asked Marcus to his orphan slaves seated around him at story time.

"Yes", said one of them, "you told us that one already!"

"Yeah", agreed another. "It was cool but weren't you telling us that other one?"

"Oh", said Marcus, "you mean of the nasty, Invincible Terramorphus!"

"Noooo", said the orphans altogether. "You told us that one already!"

"Oh, what then of the vault hunters' struggle against the treacherous sand pirates and Captain Blade's treasure…"

"No no no", said one of the orphans. "We've heard all of those stories already! What about that one you were telling us last time that you never finished? The giant stalker? The rain? Those girly scientists? It was starting to get interesting."

"Yay", said Marcus' only girl orphan. "Girls really _are_ smarter."

"Oh, is that so", said Marcus. "Nobody help her on weapon cleaning duty this week."

"Yay", the boys shouted.

"Oh, yes", Marcus said. "That story isn't just a story by itself but it's also a sequel to the Warrior vault story. Little did the vault hunters know, Pandora wasn't quite done revealing its secrets to them. As far as anybody had ever known, Pandora was a wasteland. Then the vault was opened and the Destroyer was destroyed. Eridium sprouted up from deep beneath the world and the climate drastically changed in some areas. When the second vault was opened, who's to say similar, but even more drastic effects wouldn't occur. The rain? Pfff. That was just the beginning. See, the second vault opened something else. Something much more valuable than what either of the previous vaults held. The answers lie in the Highlands, beneath the water."

"I knoooow", said one of the orphans. "They know where to go so why don't they just go?"

"Oh, you think it's that simple, do you", Marcus said with a laugh. "Little boy, you'll learn, nothing is ever that simple. For you see, complications arose. Not only were the bandits tired of their lot in life and desperate for a catalyst to change things, but there was a new outfit on Pandora. Helios. See, Helios wasn't like Hyperion. They didn't care about exploration, restoring order or even Eridium. They were simply a technologically-advanced merc company with one specialty: to end wars. Something set off Helios and their fearless leader, Adam Blitzfield, and pointed them right at the Vault Hunters. So now, as the Vault Hunters bide their time to get things in order for their friends, they are about to enter a three-way struggle of slaughter with both the bandit clans and Helios. Only on the other side, will they find the glory and salvation their hearts desire."

"Interesting", the orphan said. "Please continue."

"You don't rush a storyteller, boy", shouted Marcus, taking off his sandal and beating the boy over the head with it. "Patience is a virtue! One day, you will learn!"

"No no", said the orphans, jumping up and struggling to push Marcus back. "He was just kidding!"

* * *

"Oppurtunity", said Zer0, as he led the rest of the vault hunters and the scientists from the Fast Travel Station. He aimed down the sights of his sniper rifle to get a better view of Hyperion's deconstruction crews swiftly dismantling what was once a proud if misinformed city. "A man's psychosis made real. What a tragedy."

Of course, the vault hunters only knew it as a means to get closer to the Warrior's vault and a sociopath's ultimate masturbation fantasy. Dr. Albrecht actually lived there and she was brainwashed only in their eyes.

"This provided the home for a lot of good people", commented Dr. Albrecht. "Until you people came and ruined everything."

Suddenly, lightning cracked across the sky in the distance. Thunder quickly followed. This made most of them jump.

"It's raining…again", asked a shocked Salvador. In all of his life, water was preserved from the contaminated wastes of Skag Gully and the like until recently. Now it was raining twice within a few days. _What the hell_.

It quickly began to downpour in hard torrents. When it rains in Pandora, it seems to rain _hard_. It was quite a different vision of Opportunity to see the skyscrapers among hard, flooding sheets of rain. It was majestic in a way, to see all those bright lights muddled by water. Maya reached up with her sleeveless arm and formed a ball of Singularity energy, watching it morph and form different shapes under the water.

"At least it helps De Lumen's smell", commented a brunette next to her.

"Shut your mouth", said Shanna.

"Um, guys", said Gaige. "Look out there…"

She pointed out in the distance and saw several dark figures coming closer and closer in the rain. Zero looked down his zoomed scope.

"Buzzards", he said simply.

"What the _hell_", growled Axton. "Lil', there's bandit buzzards here and they're closing in on Opportunity fast. About two miles out."

"Crap", said Lilith from her command center. "Whatever you do, protect those girls at all costs."

Axton shut down his Echo.

"That's not _my_ style", he said. "Gaige and Zer0, you think you can play nice for about ten minutes?"

Gaige and Zer0 shared a blank glare.

"It depends", Gaige said.

"You two are playing defense", Axton said. "All the girls stay _here_. Shoot any bandits you can but if they get close, you take the girls through that Fast Travel and _go_. Maya and Salvador, we're going to light some sadistic ************* up!"

Salvador pulled out a shotgun and a revolver while Axton cocked his assault rifle. Maya had her Boreinator. They sprinted down towards the city.

"Great", shouted Gaige, throwing her hands up, "now not only are we helping the empire, but I'm stuck with all of you."

She looked at Zer0, who had already perched himself on high nook above them. How did he move so fast? The women were huddled behind her. She stared at them for a second.

"Screw this", she said and digistructed Deathtrap with her mechanical hand.

"Wow", said one of the technicians. "That's an impressively quick digistruct. Rather creative."

"Thanks", said Gaige. "Deathtrap, I need you to stay and play defense. Okay, stay. Stay. Good."

She then turned tail and took off towards the city after the others. Deathtrap grunted and attempted to follow Gaige, only to remember its orders. It turned to look at its protectees, before shifting its steely gaze up at Zer0. It held that glare for a long time. Who knows what such an android thinks?

* * *

The buzzards were closing in and firing rockets down on several of Opportunity's buildings, toppling them to the ground. Families who had walked out to see the rain were either rushing back to their homes, running through the streets or attempting to drive to an evacuation site to escape the bandits' hellfires.

Gyro riflemen were parachuting down to shoot down civilians. The scene was absolute pandemonium.

A familiar laughter was playing over loudspeakers from the buzzards as they did their bloody work.

"Brick", said Salvador, recognizing that laugh.

"You sound surprised", said Axton, as the three of them ducked behind a building for cover.

"Not surprised", Salvador answered. "Amused."

"This is Brick, the Slab-King", Brick yelled over loudspeaker. "I have come to annex Opportunity like you annexed the Arid Badlands. You probably should have left a lot sooner. I tried to warn you. Did you listen to me? Nooooo! Do you see, Hyperion? You see what you get? _This_ is what you get!"

A buzzard swooped down and fired three missiles that destroyed the center console of the city square.

* * *

From behind cover, Axton put his hand on Salvador's shoulder.

"Okay", Axton said. "Since we can't respawn, we're going to play this old-school…"

Salvador suddenly ran out from behind cover, completely ignoring Axton, screaming at the top of his lungs. He riddled a gunman directly in the back with rapid fire, using the revolver to shoot another in the head. He then stop and rained fire on a group of three who ducked behind road barriers to escape him.

"Cowards", he screamed as he pulled out one of his grenades from his belt-loop. He bit off the pin and chucked the longbow towards them. It teleported directly to the center of them.

"Oh crap", one said, as he tried to jump. The grenade rose and cleared the entire area.

More gunman began to advance on Salvador's location, causing Axton and Maya to break cover as well. Axton noticed several of them, running down one alley towards them. He took a turret pod from his belt and threw it on the wall so that it struck out in front of their path.

They stopped in the tracks when it expanded out and faced them with its two head cannon of machinegun rounds and rockets.

"Meet my girl", he shouted. Just as they turned to run away, it opened explosive fire on them.

Salvador noticed a bruiser walking towards them in the distance with a rocket launcher.

"Meet your maka", the bruiser yelled as he fired a rocket at him, trying to say _maker_ dramatically and failing. Salvador ran and jumped on the wet pavement, sliding right underneath the rocket as he fired both his assault rifle and revolver at the bruiser. Every bullet and round hit him in the head and chest area, bypassing his shield and killing him.

The three vault hunters backed into each other in the Center Square.

"This is really getting intense", shouted Maya, who shot down a marauder perched on a railing above her.

"Isn't this the way you like it", said Salvador, shooting down several midgets, attempting to run away. "Doesn't it make your balls tingle?"

"I don't have balls, remember", shouted Maya.

"Well, your ladybits, whatever", answered Salvador.

"He kind of has a point, Maya", shouted Axton. He was using his rifle to fend off Nomads and Psychos in the distance. "I mean, the rain, the lack of New U's. It kind of makes things here feel _final_. It feels like something's at stake."

"This isn't _final_ for me", shouted Maya. "I still have an underwater vault to see."

"Oh, hell yeah", said Axton.

Suddenly, a Badass Loader and a WAR Loader digistructed from a Load Station nearby; Axton turned his aim onto them. The Badass Loader turned towards him and readied its shoulder cannons to fire. Its missiles unloaded but the rockets strangely veered off away and around them in various directions. Axton's eyes followed the rockets' trajectories above his head and they hit the positions of slab bandits nearby.

Axton proceeded to watch as the two loaders walked right past them and open fire on the surrounding bandits. Axton, Salvador and Maya watched in amazement as the two loaders, along with a slew of Surveyors cleared the bandits from the surrounding area.

"No comment", was Maya's only answer.

Axton looked up and saw lightning flash across the sky again as Brick's Ultimate Badass Buzzard ascended towards the corporate headquarters in Opportunity, which had a pad on the roof. It was Opportunity's center and Jack's center of pride, designated by the giant H on the front of the building.

"We have to get to Brick and that buzzard if we want to push these guys back", said Maya.

"You know, I thought I would feel guilty about killing Brick", commented Salvador, "but naah, I think he would make an awesome kill."

"Alright", said Axton, running and grabbing his rescinded turret pod. "Area's clear! We have to pick up and move!"

* * *

"What do you think he's thinking", one the vault hunter's fem-scientists said as she watched Zer0 fire his rifle from above her.

Zer0 casually one-shotted bandit after bandit from his position, with constant 0's appearing across his mask.

"Pure murder", commented another.

* * *

Brick's ultimate Badass Buzzard was descending on Hyperion HQ.

A unit of Hyperion HAWKs were lined up on the pad, looking up at the giant buzzard as it hovered above them. All of the HAWKs were aiming RPGs at the buzzard.

"I'm giving you one warning and one warning only, bandit", said their commander via Echo. "Retreat or we'll be forced to pluck you out of the sky."

Brick was in the Buzzards central HUB while his three pilots were in the three-manned cockpit below him.

He smiled and gave them one order: "Slaughter them, Slabs!"

* * *

The route that Gaige had taken to Hyperion HQ was less dangerous than the one the others had taken. The fighting had already moved away from her section. She was disappointed.

She paused to look up at the roof of the Hyperion HQ because she heard an explosion from there. Indeed, blue smoke and flames billowed over the side of the building and she ran into the entrance to dodge some of the debris and body parts. She walked right in on a group of bandits exchanging fire with loaders. They turned, just as surprised as she was.

She reached down to her armband, which controlled her Anarchy field and pressed the "on" switch.

"Mayhem", she said with a devious chuckle.

* * *

Axton, Maya and Salvador entered Hyperion HQ a short while later, expecting a fight. What they were greeted to was a lot of discharged ammunition, marred bodies and sparking, shot-up loaders.

"Well, that's a downer", commented Axton.

* * *

Gaige stared up at the glass ceiling of the elevator, breathing roughly. The repeater she held in her hand was smoking and her clothes were soaked in blood. Her Anarchy count was at ninety-seven. Now she was heading to the top floor, intent on asking Brick what the hell he was thinking about. On one hand, what he was doing was detrimental to what they were doing. On the other hand, she had no problem with him attacking Opportunity. She was wondering if she should help him. Should she help him? She was so confused; she figured that she would decide what to do when she finally saw him.

* * *

Axton and the others went over to the elevators themselves. There were three of them. One was already being used and one was completely destroyed.

* * *

Brick and some of his closest slabs were on the top floor with a few executives, secretaries and high-level office workers. He had them all lined up on their knees in front of the large window on the side of the building. Handsome Jack, in all of his glory, made the top floor have shattering glass windows because he thought it would be cool to throw one of his critics from the top floor if they pissed him off in a board meeting like "one of those badass buddy cop movies". Handsome Jack was also a tool. It didn't really help that it was raining with lightning; it just added to the menace.

A few slabs were pacing back and forth behind them. Explosions could be heard and seen all over the city; buildings were exploding and falling.

"I really don't give a damn about justifying myself to any of you", said Brick, slapping his hammer gently on his shoulder. "I'm just saying what I'm saying for my boy here with the Echo Device."

He was referring to one of his marauders, standing off to the side recording everything on Echo, including video.

"Please", said one of the men who turned his head, "we didn't do anything!"

A scavenger stepped in front of him and gunbutted him with his rifle.

"Shut your piehole when the king is talking, suit", he yelled.

"Thanks, slab", said Brick. "One week. It's been one week since we kicked your sorry asses and signed that treaty that said you have to leave. Why are you still here? Why?"

"We need more time", one of the female executives said. "There's so much equipment to redeploy…"

"Grab her", said Brick to his slabs. "Separate all the women."

The bandits dragged her and all of the female workers from the men.

"Stop it", one of the men said, only for a bandit to kick him in the face and throw him back down with the others.

Brick turned to the Echo.

"Hyperion", he said. "We gave you enough time to get the hell off our planet. You're dragging your feet, taking your gear? If you hadn't come here to rape this planet and people for Eridium; We wouldn't be in this mess, would we? Your time is up, Hyperion. Everything you left here now belongs to Pandora. As for your people, we'll help them leave."

One of the bandits shot out the glass in front of the executives. They could feel the swift wind and wet weather on their faces; they screamed.

"Well, you wanted to leave", said a scavenger. "Then go!"

He kicked one of the men in the back towards the open window and he slid right over. He slid over the side of the building, screaming along with his co-workers and employees. That was John Stahl, Director of Energies and a family man. He had a wife and kids; and a tank of fish. The others screamed and pleaded as the slabs went down the line, kicking people over the side of the building.

"Ummm", said Gaige, "Hey, fellas. That's not very nice?"

The bandits turned their guns on her as she stepped out of the elevator with her hands up.

"How did you get past the guys downstairs", asked one of the slabs.

Brick walked towards her, still tapping his hammer across his shoulder.

"She killed them, you idiot", said Brick to him. "What do you think? Not that I'm surprised. She's a much better fighter than the lot of you anyway."

"Well, Gee", one bandit said. "It's not like I don't try, King..."

He then looked to Gaige and motioned to the last three prisoners whimpering on the edge of the building.

"What do you say", he asked. "You want to give that empire the finger one more time, slab?"

Gaige was at a loss of words. She hated Hyperion for being such a imperical, tyrannical corporation who kicked the little guy but torturing and kicking guys over the side of a building? That was badass! She didn't know how Axton and Maya would look at that, though. They might not want to loot with her anymore and she couldn't have that.

At just the right moment, the elevator to the right of hers dinged and opened its doors, revealing Axton, Maya and Salvador, who stepped with their weapons trained on the slabs.

"What", Gaige said, laughing awkwardly, creeping towards. "Me? Help you kill these innocent civilians? That's just crazy talk…although they do work for Hyperion. Guys; what do you say?"

"Gaige", said a focused Maya, without even looking at her, "shut up.

"Ok", said Gaige, doing just that.

"What are you doing here, anyway", asked Salvador her.

"I don't get left behind", said Gaige.

"Well, anyway", Brick said to them. "I'm glad you're here, slabs! Now, you can help me take over Opportunity!"

"We're here on a job to escort that group of scientists you threatened to have raped get off this planet", said Maya. "You're screwing it up!"

"Whoa", said Brick, rubbing his forehead. "Did I just hear that, right? You're actually _helping_ Hyperion? What the hell, Salvador?"

"You know Pandora, man", said a shrugging Salvador. "Alliances and friendship end as quickly as a life and _you're_ the only one still with the bandits. I never liked them; dirty cannibals."

"Whoa whoa whoa", said Axton, putting down his rifle. "I think we're all being a little hasty here."

He gently reached over and pushed Salvador's guns down. He then looked over at Maya, who gave him an alarmed look as he gently pushed her shotgun down. He then walked over to the confused bandits.

"I mean, come on", Axton continued, "look at how much we've been through together! We took down Hyperion in the first place and look at them now! Shaking and begging for their lives! I say, screw it, kill them all!"

He made it to the women that the bandits had separated from the others. He kneeled down to one of them and ran his hand through her long, brunette hair, making her close her eyes and cringe.

"Why not have a little fun with the floozies, first", he said, drawing snickers from some of the bandits. They didn't notice he had taken one of his turrets pods off of his belt, particularly one with the phalanx shield attached and placed it silently on the ground. It quickly deployed and put up the phalanx shield around himself, the girls and one bandit guard simultaneously.

"What the hell", yelled Brick.

Maya quickly put a Phaselock around the three surviving men at the window and pulled them towards her. Brick threw his sledge at her in response. Gaige quickly jumped over and attempted to knock it down with her robotic arm. It sent the hammer off course, crashing it to the ground. Salvador quickly began gunning down all of the bandits in front of him, causing Brick and a close group of slabs to take cover behind the upturned conference table as Maya safely placed the men in the elevator behind her.

Axton stood up as the bandit that was trapped in the shield with them attempted to shoot the women, only for Axton to knock his rifle up so that it was aimed at the ceiling. The women screamed in response and cowered together. One round had actually hit Axton but his shield absorbed it, something that it showed. He then punched the bandit a couple of times and attempted to wrest control of the rifle from his grip. He pulled the bandits arms towards him and bit him in the hand. The bandit yelled out in pain.

Maya reached down and checked on Gaige, who wasn't exactly screaming but gritting her teeth and breathing roughly. The robotic arm was mangled and twisted, pulling on her bone and the actual flesh of the rest of her arm.

"Dammit, Gaige", said Maya. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry, Maya", Gaige said. "I'm stupid sometimes. Girls just want to have fun and all of that silly stuff."

"You dumb kid", Maya called her.

Suddenly, Brick rushed from behind his cover towards Salvador, who continued to shoot him. The rounds just bounced right off of him, not even slowing him down. He threw a fist at Salvador, but Salvador rolled out of the way. A faint golden energy trailed Brick's hands. Maya was pretty sure Lilith told her that Brick could explode things with his fists alone; he didn't need guns. She would have to help Sal.

The bandit grabbed Axton and flung him to the ground. Sitting over him, he started to yank his rifle away but Axton wasn't letting go. He then reared back and headbutted Axton, only he hit his shield again, dazing himself. Axton swung his leg up and kneed the guy in the balls. While the guy was distracted with that, Axton pulled out a repeater and shot the guy six times in the stomach just to be sure it penetrated his shield. Afterwards, he pushed the limp body off of him.

Maya raised her tattooed hand to Brick and phaselocked him. Unfortunately, he was far too powerful while in mid-charge to lift, as he simply staggered to the side but didn't fall to the side. She was a little taken by surprise when he lunged forward and grabbed her by the head with both hands. His hands were so big that he couldn't actually choke her but felt like he could actually crush her skull easily.

Axton looked over and saw this. Caring about her that much, he left the women safely in the phalanx dome to fight off Brick. However, he forgot all about Brick's men using a table as cover in the corner. As soon as he left cover, he started taking fire from them; his shield took a few hits. He dove to the ground, firing back with the Energizing Lady Fist.

Salvador saw Brick holding Maya.

"Let go of her, pendejo", he yelled as he ran over, shooting him repeatedly. When that didn't work, he ran over to him and climbed up on his shoulders and began stabbing him in the arm with his hunter's knife.

"Go screw yourself, bandits", Axton yelled, annoyed with the bandits. They ducked down from his rounds. He reached down to his belt and threw a singularity grenade out the window directly over their heads. It's energy field yanked the helpless bandits as well as the table right out of the window to it in the storm, over seventy feet in the air. When it exploded, it knocked out the remaining windows. The remains of the bandits and the table fell to the ground below.

Salvador stabbed Brick several more times and attempted to pry Brick's hand from Maya's throat. He was strong enough with both hands to force Brick's hands away from Maya's throat even slightly. It must be the steroids. It was enough for her to feel some relief on her head. Axton ran over but Brick quickly swatted him away with a single slap. He then reached up to Salvador with both hands, dropping Maya to the ground. He then flung Salvador across the room, through a glass wall. Just as he was about to reach for Maya again, however, Gaige pointed her gun at him.

"I never reloaded, beach", she said as she fired an Anarchy-powered volley into his gut. He actually staggered back and touched his belly, feeling blood.

"Well, I'll be damned", he said. "That actually hurt."

He then lunged forward and kicked Gaige directly in the face, knocking her out. He walked over to his hammer and picked it up.

"You still can't kill me, though", he said, preparing to smash the weakened Gaige and Maya.

Suddenly, a purple tell-tale field of eridium energy appeared outside of the window. Brick turned and saw a powered Lilith staring him down, levitating seventy feet in the air.

"You're fighting me over this, too", yelled Brick.

"It's over, Brick", Lilith yelled. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"No", said Brick. "They don't get off easy! Not after what they did! They killed Roland!"

"Jack killed Roland", Lilith said, floating towards the building and setting foot on the floor inside. "Now he's dead."

"Hyperion's not innocent", said Brick. "They will leave their tech and resources to the slabs or I'll make them hurt in ways they can't imagine."

"The slabs", Lilith asked. "Jack and that bitch sheriff are dead! You don't have to be a bandit anymore! Come home to Sanctuary with us!"

"No, Lil", said Brick, slapping the hammer on one hand. "Sanctuary isn't my home anymore. It never was. I have my slabs, who depend on me."

"They eat and rape people", Lilith said.

"It's not so bad", Brick said, with a smirk. "You should try it."

"Oh, wow", said Lilith, realizing how far Brick had gone since leaving them. She phasewalked into Brick, knocking him back several feet to the ground off to the side through a glass wall, away from everybody else; she approached him becoming solid again after making herself transparent. "That's just too much, man. I thought I could talk some sense into you but you're too far gone."

"That didn't hurt", said Brick pushing himself to his feet.

"Very well", said Lilith with glowing eyes as she phasewalked again and knocked Brick through the air with a single slap. He got up as she flew towards him with wings of fire. He flew through several feet and only stopped because she teleported she teleported behind him, caught him and flung him to the ground. He fell right through the floor and landed in a heap. She landed next to him.

He struggled but pushed himself to his knees and stared at her with hateful eyes.

"That didn't hurt, either", he said.

She punched him in the face with a ball of slag, knocking him to the ground. She then climbed on top of him.

"That's because it's hurting me more than it's hurting you, old friend", she said with fiery eyes.

She formed flames over her hands and began to punch him in the face with both of her fists.

* * *

Outside, a small of fleet of Hyperion fighter ships and JET Loaders descended on Opportunity and attacked Brick's forces.

"Vault Hunters", called Jones, a Hyperion Security Captain over Echo. "Where the hell are you with those scientists? We're risking valuable Hyperion assets right now and you're nowhere to be found! Just get the girls to the Comm Tower time now! President Blake already briefed me! Just get them there! My men will handle these bandit pricks!"

Handle them, they did. Outside, the hyperion tore through the horde of slab buzzards with explosive lasers and heat-seeking missiles.

Maya was seated Indian-style with Gaige laying face-up across her lap. She attempted to put a ball of healing Phaselock energy to her frayed robotic arm but Gaige reached up and stopped her with her authentic arm.

"Not necessary", Gaige said, reached down to her skull-designed arm band. The arm band displayed her current number of Anarchy stacks, which was at one hundred and nine since shooting Brick. She pressed a pink skull button off to the side. "Discord", she said as a pink aura enveloped around her. "There's no feeling like it."

"Well, I hope Zer0 can handle things on his own for a little while", moaned Axton as he rolled over to his side.

"Please, friend", said Salvador as he crawled towards the others. "It's _Zero_."


	8. Episode 3, Part 2

"Did you catch that, Zer0", asked Salvador over Echo. "The women have to go to the Comm tower."

* * *

Zer0 watched the battle waging over Opportunity. Initially, Brick's buzzards were terrorizing the mostly defenseless city until Hyperion's security force called in their elite aerial fleets and superior technology to punish the slabs. For all of the talent that the slab gyros had, they really didn't stand a chance against that. They had to retreat; it was the only way to ensure survival and the remaining of their attack force. So why weren't they doing it? Clearly, they wouldn't do it if their king stayed to fight.

Zer0 looked down at his quarry and Gaige's paranoid robot from his perch. It turned to look at him with what he promised was malice in its glass eye. It gave a couple of its angry grunts in his direction. He was just grateful Gaige didn't give the thing a voicebox; what he said was probably full of profanities.

"I heard everything", Zer0 said over Echo. "I can see the Comm towers. You have no worries."

There was a heavily armed Hyperion warship and two transport vessels converging on a trio of expensive-looking radio towers with beacons at the top. He could see this through his scope, which he actually had to wipe down because it was still raining.

"Um…Zero, right", called Dr. De Lumen from below. "Can we go now?"

Zer0 stood and promptly somersaulted over them, landing in a crouching position in front of them.

"Coming", he asked them over his shoulder before taking off in a brisk walk. After a pause of astonishment, they quickly followed. Deathtrap was right on their heels, keeping his distance from Zer0 on Gaige's orders.

* * *

"You never cared about the vaults, did you", asked Lilith, gripping Brick around the collar. "You never loot like we did; never got excited about the prospect of any adventure or anything. You were never one of us."

"After all this time, you freaking figure it out", said Brick with a bloody-mouthed smirk. "I was only in it to look for my sister and make sure you idiots didn't get yourselves killed."

"Well, we found your sister" Lilith said. "So, did you like what you found? Did you expect anything different?"

"Screw you", Brick yelled, using both legs against Lilith's chest to catapult her across the room and pushing himself to his feet. "Do you think you're any better than me? I've personally seen you kill thousands! Now, you're an eridium junkie on some kind of god complex throwing down scriptures and commandments! Please, forgive me, Firehawk! Is that what you want to hear? You're a hypocrite! All of you! Without me, you would still be Jack's bitch and the Warrior would have destroyed everything!"

Lilith pushed herself to her hands and knees, the Siren's fiery wings flexing behind her.

"After all we've been through", Lilith said. "I can't believe you would do this to us. You know we don't kill innocents and civilians. That's exactly what you and your slabs are doing right now. Jack moved a lot of families to Opportunity, remember? Your slabs are raping and pillaging a fully populated city right now. You have to stop this. We're friends; I'm sorry about what I said about your sister. We've done some terrible things and we've hurt each other. It isn't too late, though. Come back to us, Brick. Come back to _me_."

Lilith held out her hand to him. Brick looked at her hand for a second, before shaking his head.

"Nothing will ever change what we did and what we were", Brick said, "but that time has passed. Do you see what we did here, today? Did you ever think a bandit clan could assault a city? All they've ever been is _rape this_, _slaughter that_, and _another meat puppet_! Chu Chu (blade sounds) and tatatatatatata (assault rifle sounds). I will make them into an actual force. I will make them better. All of them."

"Brick", she said pulling her hand back and cocking her head. "Are you talking about…"

"I'm going to make every bandit clan on this planet a slab", announced Brick.

"You can't…You can't do that", Lilith stammered.

"We broke the bandits when we looked for the vault a few years ago", Brick said. "They've been worse since then. So desperate for food and guns, they take to eating each other. Hyperion wanted to kill them. I'm going to give them glory and respect."

"Fear", Lilith said. "You're stronger than them so they're going to fear you."

Brick laughed for a while at that.

"You always have to be the victim", Brick said. "Everything has to be about you, Princess. Just because you're one of the rare sirens and you don't know where your wittle sisters are, everybody's out to get you. Well, if you try to stop me, you will get hurt. Trust me on that one."

Brick moved to leave.

"I think I'm done here", he said. "I have an Echo for Hyperion. My slabs have their fill of slaughter. Until next time, Lil'.

"We're not done, here", Lilith yelled, vaulting herself towards him on the strength of her wings with hands of fire.

Brick's hands glowed their explosive gold as he calmly slapped her right out of the air. She tumbled to the left of him into a roll, temporarily depowered. Lilith wasn't powered up enough anymore to match Brick. He walked over to her, cracking his knuckles and wrists.

"Remember that I spared you", he said. "Next time, it won't be your day."

* * *

Zer0 peered around a corner after signaling the doctorate graduates to a halt behind him. He saw a squad of bandits, leaving a wounded man for dead as one lifted the man's wife over his shoulder.

"Carl", the woman yelled for her dying husband, kicking and screaming, "put me down! I said put me down, you damn bandits!"

The situation reminded Zer0 of his own past and the need to act occurred to him.

"Stay", he said to the others.

"We're not dogs", one of them whispered.

"Good girls", he said as he ghosted into Decepti0n mode.

As they were moving away, one of the bandits fell to the ground with a thud as he was wearing armor. The others noticed his head was gone.

"What the hell", another said. They all turned outwards with their guns raised. It didn't help as a transparent Zer0 ran a full circle, slicing off their outstretched hands within a second and a half. They fell to the ground in a heap, screaming their heads off as Zer0 reappeared before the unharmed man carrying the woman.

"Leave the girl and run", he suggested, holding out his energy blade to the man's stomach. It was so hot that it was sizzling and dissolving the blood on it. The man was shaking and probably about to piss himself; pretty emasculating for someone who was thinking rape a second ago. He threw the girl down carelessly and took off past Zer0.

"Leave your gun too, coward", yelled Zer0, stopping the man in his tracks. "I can outrun you easy. It wouldn't be hard."

The bandit dropped his gun and ran for his life down the street. The woman had crawled over to her dead husband, holding his face in vain. She cried his name as she dropped her head and began to sob.

Zer0 looked at her and put his blade away. He walked over to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It isn't safe here", he told her. "Someone will answer for this. We should just leave now."

The others came over to them as Zer0 helped her to her feet. They continued towards the tower.

* * *

Brick leapt up to the hole in the ceiling and pulled himself to the floor where the Vault Hunters were on. Though on the ground, they tensed and reached for weapons at his reappearance. He raised his hands in surrender.

"It's cool", he said. "Me and Lilith had a long talk and we came to an understanding. We decided…"

With that, he threw down a seven-grenade MIRV he pulled from his belt and threw it down in between them.

"****", yelled Salvador, as they all scrambled to jump apart as the explosions started.

The Vault Hunters tried to move only to fall in the explosions, which blew away the floor they were standing on. The elevators were destroyed and both plummeted down to the first floor, killing the executives inside. The women fell down to the lower level with the vault hunters. The only person who escaped was Brick, who managed to run over and grab his hammer. He was almost caught in the hole of the collapsed hole, but caught on to the edge and pulled himself up over the top. With one hand, he put his hammer in the sheath on his back.

"Slabs", he called over Echo, "meet me on the west side of the Hyperion HQ building! I feel something badass coming on!"

With that, his pride of joy, the Ultimate Badass Buzzard veered over to the top floor of the HQ building, waiting for him.

He took a running start before running and leaping out of the open window for the Buzzard's landing rail. He caught it one-handed, causing the buzzard to dip down sharply before the pilots regained control. He effortlessly reached over with his other arm to hit his send button on his Echo.

"All slabs return to Thousand Cuts", Brick said. "I repeat; all slabs return to Thousand Cuts. I'm heading back with or without you chumps. If you don't leave now, you leave without the protection of my ultimate buzzard. Just sayin'."

He then climbed up and over into his buzzard's passenger cabin. He found himself a little surprised to see some of his slabs had actually rounded up a few women. The women were relatively unharmed, though shaken and apparently too frightened to do much of anything. He found he didn't like the look of their fear as much as he thought he would. How far would he go? At this point, he didn't even know. What he did know was he would never change the bandits if he didn't get all of them under his rule. The slabs were his tools and if they didn't get their jollies and kicks, he doubted they would even put up with him. Sure, he could kill the defectors but the average slab had no fear. It would just be better to give them what they wanted. It was a necessary evil in his book if he was ever going to make things better. Damn the vault hunters; as if they could ever understand.

Almost all of the buzzards almost immediately turned tail and headed in the same direction as their king. The Hyperion Aerial Fleet didn't pursue.

The four fallen vault hunters moaned and moved around in the rubble for a second.

"You guys alright", Salvador asked the others as he pushed himself up to his hands and knees.

"Yeah", said Maya rolling over to her side.

Gaige started coughing up some dust.

"I think I want to just lay here for a while", Axton said, doing just that.

"No, we have to meet Zer0 and Hyperion at the rendezvous", Maya said. "I have to talk to Hyperion directly."

"How", asked Salvador. "The elevators are blown and we're fifty stories up in the air!"

"I can help with that", said Lilith as she stood up and walked over to them. She pulled some raw, uncut eridium from her SDU. She crushed it into her hands, absorbing it into her body to replenish her lost energy and more than she had before. Ever since the opening of the Warrior's Vault, both she and Maya had gotten stronger in their powers. Siren energy fields generated around Lilith and a purple aura followed her as she walked over to Maya. She pulled out more raw eridium and offered it to her.

Maya shook her head.

"No", she said, remembering the way Angel and Lilith were used for their powers. "I promised myself I would never do that. It goes against my beliefs."

"You're being ridiculous", answered Lilith. "Our powers are different. I wouldn't be able to carry anybody but you can with your phaselock. You'd be able to fly over there. Come on, just this once so we can finish this."

Maya stared at the eridium. Maybe just this once.

Lilith flew from the HQ with her Siren wings with the Vault Hunters following in a ball of Maya's Siren energy. Axton looked down at his feet as they zoomed in the air. The energy was semi-transparent and he could see the long drop below them.

"This is amazing", he said.

"Just ridonkalous", said Gaige.

"Eh", said Salvador with a shrug. The women were just screaming their heads off.

"Oh, come on", said Axton as he threw an arm around Salvador, pulling him closer and giving him a playful kiss on the cheek. "You can admit to _me_ that you're impressed. I won't tell anyone. I promise."

A few buzzards attempted to fly past the Vault Hunters. Lilith showed them why that was a mistake when she zoomed right through them, penetrating both with her wings and leaving their charred remains to tumble to the ground. They continued on their merry way.

* * *

There were a few buzzards that weren't so happy with King Brick's orders to leave, however.

"Doc", yelled a gunner on the side of one such buzzard yelled up to his pilots, "what the hell are we doing? The king ordered a retreat!"

"Shut up", said another passenger. "He would be proud to know we took out more Hyperion retards before leaving.

The group of four buzzards were closing in on Captain Jones' ship and two transport ships for the vault hunter's scientists.

"This is for thinking you can rape our planet", one of them said before firing five of rockets, signaling the other buzzards to fire their own.

Zer0 saw the buzzards and the explosions at the towers and stopped in his tracks, halting the girls behind him.

"No", he said as he began to sprint for the tower. This just wouldn't do. The girls struggled to keep up with him but he was tireless, leaving them in the distance. "Stay back and hide!"

They fell back and ran off to the side with Deathtrap as their guardian.

When he came upon the Comm Tower, the ships on the helipad nearby were in burning heaps. He looked up at the buzzards taking off and began to burn up inside. He raised his sniper and placed some of the gunners in the crosshairs of his scope. He began picking them off one by one. All headshots. It took the buzzards a few seconds to realize that they were losing their hanging gunners.

"What the hell", one of the pilots said when he turned and saw one of his gunners gush blood from his heard, slump over and plummet from the buzzard. "Turn around", he echoed over the net. "Turn around! They want another run!"

The buzzards proceeded to turn in mid-air. They were all talented. Zer0 had to give them that much. They managed to avoid crashing into each other. That's about the only thing they can get right. They're still only worth a weak challenge to him. They pinpointed him and let off a volley of rockets.

He could have shot a few of the rockets out of the sky but there were too many of them and his sniper's fire rate wasn't high enough for that. So, he purposely overlooked the approaching rockets and aimed at the buzzard attempting to pull up over him. He put his crosshairs right on the pilot's head and pulled the trigger.

The round penetrated the glass and killed the pilot instantly. The co-pilot started freaking out.

"Billy", he said, panicking. "are you alright?". He tried to touch him as the buzzard was dipping fast, but the round was electric and he shocked himself horribly. "Oh my god!"

Zer0 ran and jumped to the left to dodge the rockets, landing behind one of the towers. He let go of the rifle and it slid away from him. He attempted to reach for it when the buzzard crashed into the bottom of the tower. He was forced to get up and run, leaving the rifle in the rubble as the buckled and collapsed.

The other buzzards pulled up and hovered in the sky above the destruction.

"There's no way he could have survived that", one of them said. "Let's head back to Thousand Cuts!"

Suddenly, they started hearing thuds on the side of their buzzards and bullets began to penetrate the cabins.

Zer0 was running parallel to them from below, in the streets, shooting a revolver up at them and actually hitting them.

"How", cried one of the Buzzard pilots in frustration. He wondering both how he could be alive and how we was hitting them with a _handgun_.

"Doesn't matter", yelled another. "Get rid of him! Do you know how much respect we'll get for killing him! No New U's means he's gone for good!"

"What does that mean for us, though", wondered another, stating the obvious.

"Shut up", he said.

Zer0 was just about run off to lead them on a wild goose chase when Deathtrap suddenly zoomed over his head, knocking him to the ground. Zer0 rolled and skidded to his feet. He looked up at the robot, who ascended towards the buzzard. It fired a ray of electricity and a beam of focused fire from both hands at a single buzzard. After only two seconds of the sustained attack, the buzzard exploded in the sky. The neighboring buzzard strafed away from the fire. Deathtrap totally left the women alone.

"Dammit", its pilot screamed.

Just as Deathtrap started for another buzzard, Lilith appeared and flew right through it on wings of fire. It exploded in her wake. Maya, the other vault hunters and their rescued executives followed closely behind her. The last buzzard did an about face and attempted to leave Opportunity. It didn't make it far before it was shot down by Hyperion Auto-Cannons.

"Vault Hunters", called Captain Jones over Echo. "Help us! There's a few of us still alive!"

Zer0 looked over at the flaming rubble. He pointed it out to the others, who had already landed.

"They landed there", he told them.

"Damn", said Salvador, lighting another firemelon cigar. "They might be screwed."

Deathtrap hovered over to Gaige and noticed her mangled digistruct claw. It grunted and shook with anger.

"It's okay, DT", Gaige said to soothe him. "We'll get him. No need to trip about it now. For now, move that pile and see if you can get to those people."

"Hurry", yelled somebody over Echo. The scientists joined the others as Deathtrap over and went crazy on the rubble, clawing through it to get to the people.

Shanna stopped in her tracks when she noticed some skag roaring in the distance.

"Anya", she asked, turning towards the howls.

* * *

Deathtrap clawed to the source of the screams. The passenger cabins of Hyperion ships are greatly fortified with modified shielding to protect personnel. It took him a while to get through it compared to the rest of the ship. He had to intensify his fire on it for ten seconds to burn a small hole in it. He punctured through the rest with his claw. There were five soldiers trapped inside. One had died in the crash. The vault hunters went over and pulled them from the cabin, including Captain Jones.

"It's good to see you held up your end of the deal", Captain Jones said to Axton, who helped him out of the ship and walk away.

"Hey, we're not _complete_ monsters", said Axton.

"Could have fooled us", said Jones.

"Hey, that could go both ways", snapped Axton.

"True that", admitted Jones. "I've done some horrible things for Hyperion but we've done some great things too. This city was one of them."

They looked around at it. It was mostly in ruins and flames now. The faltering rain wasn't doing much to help it.

Axton helped him sit down against a piece of a girder. Bennett, a physician with the women scientists, rushed over and began physically checking him for protruding injuries.

"Is something broken", she asked. "Having trouble breathing?"

"I'm fine, Doc", he said. "I just got bounced around a few times when we came down. I'm a little sore. Check on my men. Also, see if you guys can find some more in the other ships."

"Where's Blake", demanded Maya.

"He didn't come down with us", said Jones. "We figured this would happen again after the other day. Sorry."

Maya kneeled down to his eye level so she would be sure that he could fully understand her.

"_I_ have to talk to Blake directly", she said evenly. "He still has a lot of resources and assets here. If he wants it back, I can help him. If not, he can deal with Brick and the slabs on his own. He has to talk to me, though; and we have a lot to talk about."

Lilith saw this and got more than a little confused.

"Maya", she called. "Come over here."

Lilith walked away from the others and waited for Maya to get up and follow her.

Axton walked over to Jones.

"We need to call Hyperion and have them send another transport ship", he said.

Jones looked around.

"There's one more comm tower in tact", he said. "Get me over there so we can boost an Echo's signal so we contact the moon station."

Axton helped him to his feet and walked him over there. Deathtrap hovered to the other ships to get into their passenger cabins.

* * *

"What is going on with you guys", Lilith asked Maya, when she got her away from the others. "I feel like you're keeping something from me."

"We have nothing to talk about", she told her.

"Hey", Lilith said, grabbing Maya's tattooed arm with her own Siren-marked arm. She looked down and noticed both of their markings began to glow their respective purple and orange-crimson colors. It took her by surprise.

Maya suddenly yanked away from her grasp and they went back to normal slowly.

"_You're_ the one screwing up, not me", she said. "You and Mordecai had Brick in your clutches twice when he turned and you let him go. Now, he's the biggest threat to Pandora period. All of this is on you."

With that, she walked away from a stunned Lilith. She knew it was a little harsh but she wanted to distract Lilith so she wouldn't look stupid when she came up with some crazy excuse. She didn't want her to know about this underwater vault. At first she didn't know why, but she began to think that Lilith had enough on her plate already. She had a floating city to protect and now, she had Brick amassing a psychopath army. Things were starting to look bad again, even if it was raining. Maya figured she should be the one to worry about the vault. The only problem is Lilith still had the charged vault key and they would likely need that. They'd have to deal with that soon.

* * *

Jones called more transport vessels from Hyperion's moon base and they landed in twenty minutes. All of the scientists boarded the vessels. Jones was hanging over the side of one as a gunner. That was just the type of officer he was. Everybody was saying their goodbyes to each other. The transport vessels had large doors that open from the top on both sides like a buzzard. Zer0 was talking to the women.

"Thank you so much, Vault Hunter", said the widow between tears.

"We owe you our lives, Vault Hunter", Dr. Bennett agreed, nodding down to Zer0.

"It's no prob, however", Zer0 said. "When I'm around pretty girls; I'd prefer dating."

"Maybe you should try calling me through Hyperion, then", she replied. "I've been missing a little excitement in my life."

Zer0 could only stare in shock as the transport ship began its ascent and Dr. Bennett wore her knowing smile. Did somebody just flirt with Zer0?

* * *

Axton shook hands with Jones at his transport ship.

"I have to say", Jones said. "You earned my respect, Vault Hunter."

"Axton", he corrected with a smile.

"Axton", Jones corrected himself.

"You're not so bad yourself", Axton said. "Even if all you did was get hurt."

"Hey", Jones said with a chuckle, "I did my fair share from the air that you just didn't see."

They had a small laugh.

"Before I forget", Jones said, "Your reward has been deposited into your accounts already. Congrats, you're even _richer_ than before. Also, Blake will call Maya in two hours to inquire the location of the meeting."

"Good", he said. "She was gonna kill me if I didn't get an answer on that."

The transport pilot called back, "Sir, all checks are green."

"Okay", Jones said, "Start her up! 'Till later, Vault Hunters!"

Axton backed away and saluted him.

* * *

As the ship began to ascend, Shanna looked over to the side and saw Anya the female skag, as large as an Alpha Skag, climb atop a pile of rubble and howl towards her. She tried to look away. Her work was done there and things were becoming too dangerous. Still, as much destruction as humans cause and would continue to cause, destroying Pandora's nonrenewable resources, what else would be left for the animals? No, damn her life. She had caused so much evil at the Exploitation Preserve. Its name said enough about her, seeing as she was the head researcher and veterinarian. No, she had to make it up to them somehow. Somehow.

She unbuckled herself.

"What are you doing", asked a botanist. "Dr. De Lumen!"

Shanna leapt over the side of the ship to an eight-foot drop and rolled to the ground, not getting hurt seriously.

Everybody looked over the side of the ship and saw her get up and stumble before attempting to run away. Anya leapt down from the rubble and ran alongside her. Salvador caught Shanna mid-stride, though and lifted her off of her feet.

"Okay", he said, "enough of that."

Anya turned back and prepared to leap on Salvador. Zer0 walked up, aiming a SMG at her mouth. He was seconds from putting it down.

"Nooooo", Shanna screamed, struggling against Salvador. "Don't you do it, murderer!" She managed to reach into her coat and unclip one of her lowest vials. It dropped the ground and broke. It was a powerful phermone extract from female Stalkers used to ward off unwanted male suitors. It is usually sprayed in small mists and that much is unbearable. This was a vial _full_ of it.

Salvador immediately dropped Shanna, who took off running along with Anya. He fell backwards and crawled away, blinded and choking for breath, having already wafted it in. His flesh was burning red and was already beginning to boil. Zer0 fell into Decepti0n mode and wandered off. Nobody needed to know that the extract had penetrated his suit and was affecting him in different ways, such as causing him to throw up bile inside his mask and causing him to see every object in the wrong colors. The sky was purple to him and his own suit was white instead of black.

"Screw it", Jones said over Echo. "Pandora can keep that crazy chick. As far as I'm concerned, we picked up twelve girls and we left with twelve girls."

Salvador wheezed and called her every dirty name in the book as Maya struggled to heal him. Axton looked over and watched Shanna leap on Anya's side and climb up on her rough, plated back without losing stride. He wondered how she could expect to survive a sustained life on Pandora alone.

* * *

The day was full of strange surprises for King Brick. His Ultimate Badass Buzzard and its surrounding sky horde returned to its seat in Thousand Cuts.

"King, you're gonna want to see this", one of his pilots said to him.

He walked forward so that he could see out of the cockpit. In front of his domain, some of his men were holding a squad of five orange-armored soldiers hostage on their knees and a strange, hi-tech ship with large cannons on either side was hovering nearby.

"What the hell is going on", Brick said. "We don't take hostages unless they're women and even then, never here! Land this thing but keep everybody else in the air!"

"Yes, King", said one of his pilots.

* * *

Brick approached the hostages and realized the one to the far right _was_ a woman. She had pale skin and her black hair was wrapped in some strange band shaped like a propeller. What was striking is she had tell-tale silver Siren markings, running down her neck. The rest of her body was covered in orange armor, save for her right arm that was adorned with the same markings. Their armor was adorned with a symbol of a detailed eye that shed a fiery tear.

"Who are you", asked Brick, seriously. "Hyperion?"

"Do we look like Hyperion", she asked. "I am Arms Chief Joanna Allen and we're from Helios Company. Your boys act like they haven't seen a woman in like, ever. I had to kill a _lot_ of them before they finally settled down."

_Introduction Alert_

Joanna Allen: **If looks are deceiving, please deceive me. You would say the same if you could see her.**

"That's nice", Brick said, before turning to one of his marauders holding a gun on her. "Kill them."

"Uh uh uh", said a man over Echo, coming from the ship in the distance. "Uh uh uh uh UH! Please, don't do that. I have enough firepower on this ship to turn Thousand Cuts into Pandora's *******. Did I mention I have more than one of these?"

"And who are you supposed to be", Brick said into his Echo, looking at the ship, realizing it was the only reason his men hadn't killed the hostages yet.

"Oh, I'm her boss", he said. "I'm Adam Blitzfield, Commander of Helios. I would shake your hand, but precautions have to be made. I have to be sure you'll cooperate with me."

"You sound like a coward to me", said Brick. "I smash cowards."

"King, I assure you I'm not your enemy", Adam said. "I want to be your friend and you're going to need one. The Vault Hunters, Hyperion, every other bandit clan on the planet; you must have somebody try to collect on the bounty on your head every day."

Brick pointed to the pikes at the top of his fortress. Most of them were the heads of Hyperion assassins but there were some bandits too.

"Exactly", Adam said. "Brick, King, there's something you have to understand. Helios, is a company that deals in the business of _peace_. War… is a lucrative business until it's…not. Then when the sides are desperate to stop, peace becomes twice as lucrative as war ever was. That's where I come in. King, this whole war and destruction between the clans and vault hunters; it's no good for anyone. You want to be king; I want to make you an emperor. How does Brick, 'King of all Bandits of Pandora' sound to you?"

"Umm…", Brick said, rubbing his head, "that's what I was going to do anyway."

"Perfect", Adam yelled. "I'm going to help you! You can even have some of my ships and pilots! My guys will show your guys how to fly them! How's that sound? Is it a deal?"

Brick rubbed his chin.

"So, you'll just help me like that", he said. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is you'll be king of everything", Adam said with frustration creeping into his voice. "I guess if you really want to negative about it, you can say the catch is that when you're sitting on your throne made from the blood and bones of your enemies, you'll look at your tech and harem and realize you would have never gotten any of it without me."

* * *

Maya walked up the steps of Raiders HQ in Sanctuary to find Mordecai, sitting near the top and downing a bottle of whiskey. Their mission was mostly a success even if Opportunity fell mostly into ruin. Still, some things never change.

"Is she still a mess", she asked him, referring to Lilith. She's been holed up in the battle room since they've gotten back. Maya heard crying earlier.

"She still isn't over Roland", Mordecai said. "Neither is Brick. Speaking of Brick, there's that too."

"You're going to try to help her", Maya said. "You understand her pain. They were all your friends."

"Hey", Mordecai said, gesturing with his bottle. "Lil's a strong girl. She can take care of herself."

"Out of my way, you drunk", Maya groaned as she phaselocked him down the stairs behind her and barged into the battleroom.

Lilith was curled up on a couch with a box of tissues.

"What are you doing here", Lilith yelled. Her mascara smeared down her face, revealing the fire in her eyes.

Maya grabbed her by the arm and yanked her from the couch. She dragged her over to the open window, looking over the town.

"What the hell, Maya", she said.

Maya got on her knees and dragged Lilith down to _her_ knees.

"I want you to shut up for once", Maya told her. "Focus inside and concentrate."

"What is this", Lilith said.

"Just do it", hissed Maya.

Lilith went quiet and emulated Maya. She clenched her eyes shut. She tried but nothing happened.

"Nothing", Lilith said.

"Focus all that energy you usually spend on wings, fireballs and teleportations inside", Maya said. "Into your abdomen and then upwards to your _mind_; let it flow throughout your body. Become it's conduit. You're eridium's tool. Not the other way around."

Lilith focused intensely and Maya took her hand. Both of their markings began to glow. Although neither of them saw it, their personal colors exchanged across each other; Lilith's markings began to glow purple and Maya's began to glow crimson-red.

Lilith began to hear them. The voices of women, as well as what sounded like a little girl. She could only make out a little of what they were saying. They were all so distant. Maya had mentioned that they were on different planets. Yet, she could _hear_ them. Their connection as sirens transcended space itself. This touched Lilith so emotionally that more tears began to stream down Lilith's closed eyes but these were tears of joy.

Maya suddenly gripped Lilith's arm tightly. She smiled brightly.

"Lilith", she said. "Do you hear that?"

"Yes", Lilith said, smiling just as brightly.

They heard the wailing of a brand new, presumably beautiful baby girl. A new siren had just been born.

"Don't you see, Lilith", Maya asked. "No matter what happens, you will always have a purpose and direction in the universe. You'll never be alone because _we'll_ be there."

Maya then hugged Lilith close and held the sister she never knew she had until a month ago.

Considering how preoccupied they were, neither of them could have realized that the charged key in Lilith's vault was glowing brighter than it had ever glowed before. Even when it was used to awaken and control the Warrior; its light was penetrating the sides of the door, although it was designed to contain _everything_.


	9. Episode 4, Part 1

"So, how's our favorite Gunzerker doing", asked Axton as he stepped into Zed's "medical" office. One of the things Axton loves about Zed's office is that the only medicine you will find are Health Nows in the Vending machine. All of the drawers were filled with scalpels, bone saws and painkillers. So basically, if you had something really serious like a disease or a rotting limb; you're going to lose that arm. Welcome to Zed's.

Salvador laid on Dr. Zed's operating table, still spasming from the effects of the alluring Dr. De Lumen's stalker pheromones. The boils were dying down but his skin was still fire-red. Salvador grabbed Axton's hand as another spasm came on and he grunted in discomfort. Axton grimaced in pain; he was afraid the little guy would crush his entire hand's bones together.

"That bucket next to the table is full of puke", commented Zed as he stepped out from behind his curtain on the other side of the room with his assistant, Cutty.

_Reintroduction Alert_

_Dr. Zed:_ **The Last face you want to see above you on an operating table. Sorry, Salvador.**

Finally, Axton managed to yank his hand away from Salvador and flexed it, trying to get some feeling back.

"He's starting to come around, though", said Zed, looking over a chart on his digipad that was supposed to be Salvador's condition. That was only Zed trying to look more professional; it was actually a digital drawing he did earlier of Maya and Lilith hugging while wearing bikinis. "Yep, the boils and the vomiting has died down and he's been able to keep his beer down."

"Beer", Axton asked him, dumbfounded. "You're giving him beer?"

"It's the only thing he'll keep down", Zed protested.

"I still think we should cut him open", Cutty, his assistant, helpfully suggested as he rubbed his gloved hands together nervously. The man looked emaciated and very shady with a medical mask covering his face and his thinning, gray hair parted on either side of his head. He sounded a lot like a rat, cannibals that plant themselves underground that even the bandits despise. There was definitely _something_ off about him. He was probably tweaking on something.

"Dammit, Cutty", Zed yelled, looking back. "We're not doing that!"

Cutty raised his jagged blade and whined, "Just a little cut!"

"We only perform surgery on people we don't like", Zed reasoned. "I've told you this."

Suddenly, Salvador reached out and grabbed Axton's forearm.

"Let me…", he said, weakly, "Let me gut that vet bitch."

"We have bigger skags to fry than some crazy doctor", Axton said.

"If I see her again", Salvador whispered. "I'm to shoot her face off of her face."

"That doesn't make any sense, buddy", Axton answered, rubbing Sal's arm.

"How's Zer0", Sal asked. "I heard he got a direct shot of that crap too."

"If he did", Axton answered, "he's recovered by now. Remember, the guy's not human. You know, my nostrils were pretty singed after that crap started spreading and I didn't feel so good for a while. The girls didn't notice anything at all. Whatever that crap was, I think it only affects men."

"That feminist bitch", grunted Salvador. Of course she would use something to only affect the men.

"I have worse news", Axton said. He hated having to tell him this but it had to be done. "You don't look so good, man. I'm going to let you rest while we go to meet Blake."

"What", shouted Salvador, trying to sit up and regretting it immediately; another dry heave spell was coming on.

"You're in a bad way, man", Axton started before Sal told him to shut up.

"Take one of those pens from around my leg", instructed Salvador.

Axton looked. Around Sal's leg was a bandoleer of cylinder-shaped rods with thick points. Axton grabbed one and pulled it from its loop.

"Now, stab it into my thigh as hard as you can", yelled Salvador.

"Wait, what", asked Axton.

"Just ******* do it", shouted Salvador at the top of lungs in anger. This brought yet another dry heave spell. The only reason why they were dry heaves was because he was dangerously low on fluids. Zed is a horrible doctor.

In shock and he would never admit to it, a little fear, Axton slammed the pen into Salvador's right thigh as hard as he could. Almost immediately, Salvador began spasming and flexing his back in the air as if struggling internally. He began spouting expletives left and right as the little big guy thrashed about on the bed. Axton looked down at the now light, emptied pen in his hand and realized.

"Wait", he said, holding it up, "was that a steroid?"

* * *

Gaige continued to run a coolant beam over her recently welded new arm. She wore her usual light-refracting work goggles, as usual.

"You're so beautiful and talented", said her father, whom she let watch her work. She had a Long-Echo session set up with him on her digipad, which she had set up on her workbench nearby. Claptrap was assisting with her operation after she had already repaired his anti-gravity lifts. He was quite grateful for her improvements to his exterior design. If he knew what plans she was incubating in her head for his personality quirks, he wouldn't be so grateful.

Gaige stopped the coolant beam, which emitted a sharp, continuous whirring sound as it worked. She took off her goggles and looked over at her digipad towards him. She was glad he was able to get acquitted of the charges on Eden-5. He was a free man. Although, she had class debates about the legal system there in the past, she was grateful for it then. To her dismay, however, he had let his facial hair go wild. He looked like a burly Sir Hammerlock. She told him repeatedly to at least trim it but it seemed that their distance gave him some boosted courage.

"What", she asked, legitimately not hearing him before.

"I said you're so beautiful and talented", he repeated. "It's still a dream! My baby girl is working for Hyperion!"

Gaige told her dad that she worked as an engineer for Hyperion repairing and designing new loaders. She couldn't see herself telling him that she was a mass murdering mercenary and a terrorist in an interplanetary corporation's eyes or that she's died a hundred times over. Also, it explained the loads of money she forwarded to his account.

"Yeah", Gaige said, making throat cutting motions to Claptrap so that he wouldn't say anything, "it _is _a dream."

"I always knew you could succeed anywhere", he said, leaning forward. "Now, you can tell your old man…have you found a boyfriend, yet?"

"Daaaaad", said Gaige suddenly blushing, snapping her goggles back on and eager to get back to work on her replacement claw.

"Gaige, you're eighteen", he said. "It isn't so cute to be modest anymore. Only to me."

She smiled at that. She even told him that her digistruct claw was damaged in a loading accident that day. If he knew that his only daughter had a bloodlust that she couldn't control, would he still think that she was cute? Even back when Deathtrap went off the handle and exploded Marcy on Eden-5, she wasn't dismayed that Marcy had been killed; she was dismayed that it had happened in public and that neither she nor her father would be safe there after that.

"Dad", Gaige said, finally. "You need to come to Pandora."

"What", he said, "Why?"

"Marcy's dad", she said. "He's a billionaire with a legit grudge against _us_. Don't you think you should watch your back?"

"What's he going to do", her dad asked. "Put out a hit out on me?"

"Yeah", was Gaige's simple response.

"Gaige, he's an industrialist with his hands in hundreds of charity organizations", he said. "He's Eden-5's golden boy."

"And I killed his little girl", answered Gaige. Although Deathtrap killed Marcy without her consent, she had considered her the first kill as she saw herself responsible. Over time, she's begun to realize that she's been very angry for a very long time and without Marcy crowding her space every day, she found that she could breathe. She found herself glad that Marcy died. "Dad, just seriously think about it."

Her dad stared at her awkwardly for a moment before bursting in laughter to break the ice.

"Oh, my little girl", he said. "Let's stop being so depressing, huh? Your mother and I are so proud."

Gaige closed her eyes with a chuckle, trying to hold back a tear or two.

"Okay, dad", she said, trying to keep her composure, "I have to go."

"Okay, sweetie", her dad said, kissing his fingers and putting them on his digipad. "I love you and be safe over there. Don't let your coworkers give you any crap."

"I won't, dad", she said, before going over to her digipad and doing the same with her real hand. "I love you, too."

They sadly ended their Long-Echo session before she went back over to her new claw and opened its install port.

"Clap", she said, without looking at him. "The digistruct kit, please."

Claptrap hovered over to her toolbox shelves and ascended in the air to grab her digistruct kit, which is not unlike a glowing card of RAM when activated.

"You know what my preceding Claptrap unit used to always tell me", Claptrap asked. "The truth will set you free."

"Not now", Gaige said, holding out her hand. "I'm not in the mood. Just give me the kit."

Claptrap hovered over to Gaige and handed her the kit.

"You know you can always talk to me", Claptrap said. "Right, Mechromancer?"

"Sure, Clap", she said before forcing a smile. "Thanks."

"I'm all ears", he said. "Well, not literally but my emotive audio receivers are. Hey; I _am_ all ears!"

Gaige legitimately smiled as she opened the module latch in the arm and installed the digistruct kit. She closed the latch and readied her arm. At the time, she had only a stump for an arm with her bicep attachment. Her new claw came in two pieces as opposed to the old one which only came in one. The upper portion had six small hooks that embedded themselves in her arm. It was painful at first but she installed a painkiller in the claws so it actually felt quite good after a while. She thought of it as a piercing; she would even have to remove it every now and then to clean it. The lower portion, the actual claw, twisted and locked in place to the upper portion. She picked it up and pressed the lock button on the side, which immediately locked it in place and linked it with her nervous system. It was jarring at first and she spasmed at first from the pain. Her veins were beginning to bulge in her other arm and her forehead.

"Mechromancer", Claptrap called nervously, "are you alright?

"Get me a Health Now", she shouted in a surprisingly deep, demon-like voice. Her face being really red added to Claptrap's shock and sudden terror as well.

"Aaaah", he screamed, waving his arms in the air like a slasher film victim as he hovered over to her work table and grabbed a health now shot. He returned it to her and she promptly injected it into her left shoulder above her claw assembly. She felt immediate relief and sighed as she slumped back in her chair.

"Whoa", she said, leaning back and breathing roughly. "That was awesome."

"Yeah", Claptrap said nervously, "that was …um…something."

She eventually got up and flexed the fingers on her new claw. She walked over to her metal table and flung her claw right through it. It pierced it so easily that her arm went halfway through it, up to the elbow. She yanked it out just as easily without leaving a scratch on its exterior.

"Awesome", she repeated, putting her real index finger on her chin in thought. "Now I gotta think up some upgrades to DT."

* * *

"So, is Salvador coming with us", Maya asked Axton as he walked in. Maya, Axton, Zer0 and Gaige were meeting in Tannis' apartment. Tannis was sitting cross-legged on her couch while the others surrounded her in chairs.

"He's pumping himself full of steroids", Axton told her, "but I don't think he'll make the trip today. I think he's aiming for our journey under the sea."

"You're not going to the vault", Tannis asked.

"We can't today", Axton told her. "Not with everything going on. Plus, we have to get that key away from Lilith."

"She hasn't left that room ever since I got her meditating", said Maya.

"I'll do it", Zer0 said.

"Zer0", Maya asked.

"The clock strikes midnight", he said, "I'll slip in, take the key. It's really simple."

"What if she's still awake", Maya asked.

"I'll deal with her accordingly", Zer0 answered.

"Zer0, I like you", Maya said, "but if you hurt her, I swear…"

"Maya", Axton cut in, "Chill! What about the vault combination? She changed it since we took down the Warrior. Now, none of us know it."

"Again, not a problem", said Zer0, not backing down apparently.

"Okay, I'll guess we'll see", said Axton after a moment to think on their plan. "It's either you sneak in or we run in and shoot Lilith in the head. I really wouldn't want to do the second one."

"Why don't you just tell her", asked Dr. Tannis.

"I really don't want to involve her", admitted Maya. "She's overbearing and she just doesn't think."

Maya was still a little angry and in disbelief that Lilith was dumb enough to go into Angel's Chamber after they took down the Bunker. She herself had purposely sat out on advancing down that elevator. She remembered feeling a sense of dread when she even approached it and knew it was a trap for her. When she saw that Lilith didn't sense it herself, she realized that the eridium she used to superficially boost her powers was hampering her true abilities. Although she cares for Lilith like a sister, she's since grown wary around her. She tried to talk Lilith into landing Sanctuary but she carelessly brushed it off. Maya thinks Lilith enjoys all of the attention she gets from men, the cult she inspires and her empty displays of power. That was why she got her distracted with the voices of the sirens. She was so cut off from their world that something like that would keep her out of their hair for days. Then they would take the key. They didn't need her.

"It's time", Gaige said, looking at her watch. She meant it was time to meet Jeffrey Blake, President of the ever-so illustrious Hyperion Corporation in Overlook. The Vault Hunters got up to leave.

"Alright, Doc", Axton said. "Tomorrow, or possibly tonight, we leave. Be ready."

"I'm more ready than you are", said Tannis from her seat.

Axton gave a "sure you are" look at her before they headed out.

"What", asked Tannis, looking up at her ceiling chair friend, Clork. "Don't you laugh at me!"

* * *

"That must be him", Gaige said, narrowing her eyes at Blake's transport in the sky. It was escorted on three sides by Hyperion warships. "The Emperor."

"Now, now", said Axton, patting her on the shoulder. "They're not our enemies anymore, remember?

Hyperion had grown somewhat considerate and compassionate under Jeffrey Blake. Handsome Jack would have landed his ships right in the middle of town and not care what or who is destroyed in his wake. Blake had the senses to land his ships a distance away from the town. He left some guards with the ships before leaving with his own personal guards to head to Outlook in order to meet with the vault hunters. He could be distinguished from everybody simply from the facts that he wore a suit, which people on Pandora generally didn't do in public and the fact that he had white hair. White hair generally was illustrative of one's senior age and people on Pandora generally never lived long enough to see it.

* * *

"Okay, you can let the shields down now", Maya informed Karima on her porch steps. "They're here."

Karima was more than a little wary about letting Hyperion in.

"But you said they we-were Hyperion", she said. "I p-promised these people I-I would protect them."

Maya put her hand on Karima's arm to calm her down. Her markings glowed as her powers worked to give Karima some much needed relief on the pressure in her head.

"And I promised to protect _you_", she told her. "We'll be right there, ready to shoot them down if they try anything. Ok?"

It took a second or two to acknowledge that she was reassured with a nod.

She walked slowly inside of her house as if it pained her to do so. It felt like giving in to her and she didn't like the guilt that would plague her forever if one of her neighbors got hurt.

Several guards walked through the town with rifles at their sides; President Blake walked directly behind them with several more guards behind him.

"We're just going to let them walk around with …guns", asked one of townspeople who ventured out to her porch.

"There's …nothing to worry about", her husband said before pulling her closer to an embrace. "The V-Vault Hunters are here."

Blake's entourage stopped in the middle of town. He looked around at the townspeople, watching him intently with weapons of their own. They were once afraid of Hyperion; not so much anymore. He even saw a little boy load a pistol.

"Okay, Vault Hunters", he yelled out. "I get the sense I'm not welcome here! Come meet me and tell me why I'm here!"

The Vault Hunters saw Blake from their spot on Karima's porch and collectively walked over.

Blake recognized them and had his security team head in their direction.

"I've had to clear several appointments for this meeting", he told them. "I have a board of directors losing their minds right now, dozens of families complaining that Opportunity isn't safe anymore and a madman with his hands on WMDs, so please tell me what you have for me is that important."

"We just want you to have a look around", Axton said, spreading his arms. He was gesturing to the people of Overlook, who watched them from their porches. These were all people that wore hoods over their mouths so that they wouldn't spit blood on their neighbors and children. These were people forced to dig eridium for the Hyperion Corporation at gunpoint.

"The people suffer because of you", added Gaige. "They all suffer from Skull Shivers because they broke their backs to make you rich. You left them with nothing and took everything."

"Do you know what the skull shivers are, Mr. Blake", asked Maya.

"Yes girl, I know what the skull shivers are", snapped Mr. Blake.

"There's only one known cause of it", Maya continued. "A human's overexposure to eridium; you see, it really is quite toxic in high quantities. It's especially dangerous to the brain; the capillaries expand and slow the flow of oxygen, creating buildup and incredible pressure. That's where you get your intense migraines, bleeding orifices and that horrible stuttering. Take another look around, Mr. Blake. Every adult and some children suffer from this disease that will kill them."

"It's not even the worse thing you've done on this planet", Axton said defiantly with his arms crossed. "You shouldn't be surprised that everybody sees you as the worse thing to ever happen to this place and why Hyperion has so many enemies and why Brick can do what he does to you with so much support."

Blake looked past them, at Karima and some of the other people of Overlook. They were all wearing masks over their mouths; some of the masks had spots of blood on them.

"We give you medicine", Blake countered in a low voice. This was starting to get to him.

"It doesn't work", shot back Maya. "Do you think I would bring this up to you if it did?"

"So what do you want me to do", asked Blake. "What can I do? The medicine doesn't work."

"I've heard and seen things in that Exploitation Preserve of yours that tell us that Hyperion did extensive experimentation with slag on people and animals", said Maya. "As wrong as it was, you had to learned _something_. Use it."

"Look, A-hole", blurted out Gaige. "Hyperion treated these people like slaves and kept them on the brink of death. They were fed to the grinder!"

She pointed to the large death machine that made its living chewing up bones, flesh and internal organs.

"Make this right", she demanded. "If you don't, you're as bad as Jack."

Blake wiped some sweat off of his forehead with a tissue before sighing depressingly.

"I need a drink to think this through", Blake before looking at them. "Would you care to have a drink with me?"

"With probably the most powerful man in this solar system", asked Axton. "Of course."

* * *

The Vault Hunters accepted Blake's offer of having a drink. The group decided to head to the Holy Spirits just outside of Overlook. Blake was relieved because he was anticipating some kind of violent backlash from the townspeople and being trapped in Overlook's shield meant somebody was going to get hurt. Overlook was relieved because they were uneasy about Hyperion presence amongst them again. It was for the best that they went to the bar which was just a few yards out of the Overlook Shield radius.

Although the bar was still run by Zaford-affiliated bandits; most of the Zafords themselves had been slaughtered by the Vault Hunters in the bandit clan feud with the Hodunks. The Vault Hunters were indiscriminate; they had also managed to kill off the prominent Hodunks. Both clans were crippled and left unable to sustain any kind of feud or even any kind of grasp of power for at least one generation. The Vault Hunters were allowed back simply out of fear; as in if the patrons didn't allow them back, Salvador would have finished the job. This intimidation worked well on both the Zafords and Hodunks, even when Sal wasn't around.

Blake and the Vault Hunters took up two secluded booths with two of Blake's personal guards. Zer0, Axton and Maya sat in a booth across from him while Gaige was relegated to sitting on her knees to see everybody in the booth behind them.

"You Vault Hunters really have me by the scrotum on this one", Blake admitted after taking a gulp of his beer.

It was surreal to Zer0 that he was watching Blake drink beer. It was even more surreal to hear him say _scrotum_. Axton agreed as he mouthed "scrotum" with a questioning look at Maya.

"Brick has been really killing us and I'm starting to lose the confidence of my board of directors", Blake said. "Make no mistake; we _are_ leaving. Yet, the way Brick has been coming at us has made it very difficult. Really counter-productive; I thought he wanted us to leave."

"I think what Brick really wants now is your resources", said Maya.

"Oh, it's more than that…", he said as he took out the Echo video sent to him earlier today. It replayed Brick and his slabs holding the executives hostage in the Hyperion HQ. The Vault Hunters hadn't seen that before. When Brick had his slabs shoot out the windows and start kicking people over the side of the building, even Axton had to close his eyes. Who knows what Sal would have thought.

"Now, I need your support on this", Blake said turning it off and putting it down. He adjusted the cufflinks on his suit. "I knew Brick once, too. He was a very likeable man but now he's changed for the worse. I need your support one hundred percent on this; this has to stop. If you help me, I promise I'll give you my support on anything you need done. You have my word."

_Crap_, thought Axton. _Yet another distraction_.

"Okay", Maya said. "First things first; the New U stations. We want them back on."

"I'm sorry to inform you but Handsome Jack sold the licensing of the New U software shortly before you battled him and the Warrior", Blake informed them.

That surprised Zer0 to no end. If that happened, that means they defeated Terramorphus without possible revival. If they died while fighting the thing, they would have been lost forever. The thought chilled him.

"To whom", asked Maya, leaning forward.

"I honestly don't know", admitted Blake after a swig of his beer. "We tried to trace the buyer but it turned out to be an empty dummy corporation, possibly because Jack intended for the software to be lost forever. A last 'screw you' from beyond the grave if you will."

"Grave", scoffed Gaige, "we would never bury that fascist."

"Gaige, please", tempered Maya.

"Is there anything else", asked Blake.

"Who is Adam Blitzfield", asked Axton, leaning forward.

Blake put his beer down and stared directly into Axton's eyes for a second, making him somewhat uncomfortable.

"Where have you heard that name", wondered Blake.

"He attacked us at Fyrestone", answered Axton. "He was piloting a high-powered ship. Most of Fyrestone is probably a crater by now. He said to ask you about him."

"Well, if he's here", Blake as he leaned back, "things just got a lot worse."

"Who is he," asked Zer0.

"In his eyes, he's a peaceful man who thinks he can save the world by matching weapons with some of the most dangerous", he explained.

"A peacekeeper", asked Gaige. "What a lame James."

"I said in _his eyes_", he continued. "He's actually a psychopath with his hands on too much technology and weapons", Blake told him. "He's completely delusional and dangerous. Stay away from him."

"If he comes after us", said Zer0. "You know we can't do that."

"Hey", complained Gaige over Zer0's shoulder, "that wasn't a haiku."

* * *

Outside, a small group of Helio operatives, including a bare-footed, wild-haired woman with silver Siren markings running down her neck and bare right arm, walked up the steps to Holy Spirits and confronted Blake's security team at the door.

"Nobody gets inside", commanded one of the guards, stepping forward with his rifle out, "Come back in five minutes."

Joanna stepped directly in front of them, defiantly looking at them.

"Did you hear us, missy", one said, "Turn around and march your ass-"

"Phasemorph", she said as both of her hands transmutated into a pointed crystalline material before ramming her arms upwards through the fleshy underparts of their chins. It wasn't deep enough to kill enough but enough to drop their weapons and squirm on the ground.

"Good work, Chief", Helios' commander commended her from behind.

"Thank you, sir", she answered.

The other guards prepared to fire on them before he pressed a single button on his wrist digiband and they realized their weapons were disabled from firing. He called it the Peace Treaty; suddenly they were very vulnerable to him and his mercs.

* * *

"So do we have a deal", asked Blake. "You help me with this bandit problem and I help you with Overlook and I can see about this submarine you want."

Axton looked over Maya who nodded his head and Zer0 who did the same. They had just told them about their undersea excavation. They didn't say it was a vault; just that there was talk of some real loot down there and he agreed to provide a sub.

"Deal", Axton said, reaching over and shaking Blake's hand.

While this was happening, Zer0 happened to be scanning the room when he noticed a broad-shouldered, long-haired man with black dust goggles and a brown duster leading a group of ten or more orange-armored soldiers through the doors including one barefoot, raven-haired woman with strange tattoos similar to Maya's. A siren? The group walked directly to the bartender, who was cleaning glasses, and asked him something. The bartender pointed to their booths and the man looked right at Zer0. Although Zer0 couldn't see his eyes behind his goggles, he could tell his eyes were narrowing. He had a very strange feeling about the man.

The group wasted no more time in approaching their booths. It looked like the leader dropped something to the ground on his way over.

Blake's internal security guards stopped them in their tracks, training their rifles on them. The leader immediately put his gloved hands up in surrender.

"Peace, bro", he said. "Peace. I just came to say something to those guys."

"Get to walking", one told him.

He pushed his disable button on his Peace Treaty again and disabled their weapons. He pushed the guard to the side and walked right up to their booths as his Helios men moved to beat down Blake's guards, which they outnumbered.

"Let me guess", Axton said with a sigh. "Adam Blitzfield."

The long-haired, black goggle-wearing psychopath who considers himself a man of peace did a half-curtsie, gripping the sides of his duster.

"How do you do", he said in a playful, girlish tone.

_Introduction Alert_

_Adam Blitzfield:_ **The Big Bad. Yep, I'm calling it.**

"Adam", Blake said, turning in his seat, "it's been a long time, hasn't it?"

Adam slapped a hand on Blake's shoulder.

"Blake, Blake, Blake", Adam said, "Come _on_; you can stop playing coy now. Did you know this man hired me to kill all of you; you know, like right now?"

"You despicable…", Blake began before Adam pushed him in the mouth playfully, knocking him over in the booth seat.

"Fifteen seconds", Adam told the vault hunters. "I'm going to give you fifteen seconds to prepare yourselves and meet me outside; or things are going to get really nasty."

"Why, so we can have some peace rally", Axton asked.

"No", Adam countered. "So I can put a couple of bullets in each of your extremities so that you can never kill again, glory hound.

Zer0 had heard enough. He got up and attempted to stab him in the stomach. As fast as he was, Adam saw it coming before he even began the motion and deconstructed himself digitally. He reappeared a distance away to the bar, where he had dropped his telepod. He casually dropped another one, ready for use and flashing its ominous blue color.

"So quick to violence", he said, clicking his tongue. "Loot and murder, rinse and repeat. Are the only things you know hatred and greed?"

He then looked around at all the bar patrons, at their faces. Most had stopped their conversation and activities when they saw the Vault Hunters were getting into it with somebody. Something interesting was always going on with them.

"The Vault Hunters", he said to all of them, "you call them your heroes but you're afraid to talk with them or even look them in the eyes. Everything they do begin and ends with payment."

"Mister", one man who was simply enjoying a beer at the bar turned on his stool and said to him, "you haven't been on Pandora long, have you? _Everything_ here begins and ends with payment. It's just our way. It's the way it always has been and the way it will always be."

"That's just sad", Adam responded. "That creates nothing but conflict and turmoil. It's okay. I can save all of you from your own self-destruction; starting with you."

He was pointing at the vault hunters.

"Ten seconds", he said as he turned to leave. "Ten seconds and we could end this little game."

"How about we end it now", Axton said as he jumped out of his seat and stood up to face Adam.

"Here", Adam asked. "Are you sure?"

Both of them and even everybody else knew they were talking of having a shootout between the two factions right there in the bar.

"I'm giving everybody the opportunity to leave now", Axton shouted to the bar. "Things _are _going to get nasty."

"There you go playing the hero again", Adam quipped. "It doesn't really suit you. You're much better at playing the greedy merc."

Only a few people left the bar while a majority stayed. Most of those pulled guns of their own.

"Vault Hunters get respect 'round here", said the shotgun-toting bartender as he spat on the floor. "They defended the entire planet several times when nobody else cared to; that's something pacifists idiots like you would never understand. You can only fight a gun with a bigger gun and a better strategy. Now, you go ahead and git before I put a shell of buckshot in your ass."

Adam simply flashed a smile at his Helian mercs before giving them a hand signal consisting of a peace sign and a twirl with his index finger. They all pulled out their personal digistruct pods, summoning their loverbots. Loverbots are Helios-exclusive peacekeeping androids, designed to stop any riot or armed conflict. Every Helios operative carried a Loverbot digipod. They didn't wait to be fired upon; the loverbots set themselves out on the bar patrons and went to do their horrible work. Unlike the Hyperion loaders, they didn't walk on stilts; they hovered with anti-gravity lifts utilizing even greater speed and effectiveness than Deathtrap. Each one had blades and lasers of different types attached to their arms, heads and bodies; they were built to disable (maim) any enemy to keep them from fighting. They were co-designed by Adam himself.

A barrage of gunfire went off, attempting to slow the loverbots but they were too fast to be hit with the panicked shots as the vault hunters saw.

* * *

Axton immediately got out of the booth and threw one of his turrets down. Adam and his Helian troops ducked into cover behind booths and tables. Ax's turret was double-barreled and threw up a Phalanx shield as it unloaded ammo on Helios like gumballs.

Blake was grateful for the shield as his own men were down and rounds bounced off of the thing left and right. Yet Axton, Zer0, Maya and Gaige were firing out of the thing with no problem, however. He noted that it was similar to the Ion Loaders, except probably more versatile thanks to the still-firing turret. They had taken down two of the Helian mercs so far. Adam couldn't really get settled down to activate his Peace Treaty because he was getting fire from three directions.

The loverbots hovered on trails of anti-gravity fields and descended upon the patrons, spewing Adam's message of anti-war propaganda.

"Down with hatred", a loverbot spouted in its baritone digital voice as it waved its arms made out of shimmering plasma blades. "Only when you expunge hate from your heart, will you experience true bliss."

This same Loverbot ignored the rounds one man bounced off of its hide with his rifle and proceeded to slice one of the man's arms from his body. He laid down and frantically attempted to stem the bloodflow from his wound, while screaming.

"Threat neutralized", the Loverbot remarked. It then proceeded to use its eye laser to painfully cauterize the man's wound, probably saving his life. The man screamed in agony as the Loverbot admired its work. "The enemy has become a friend of me", it gleefully added.

The other patrons attempted to fight off the advancing Loverbots that used eye lasers, electricity and plasma bone saws to subdue them.

"Please don't hate me", begged a Loverbot as it hovered above a man and shocked him with bolts of electricity just strong enough for him to feel tremendous pain and lose control of his bodily functions.

"You're not making sandwiches", cried another as it zoomed across the ground and cut a woman's legs out from underneath her.

* * *

The Vault Hunters had their hands full with Helios mercs on the other side of the bar.

Adam signaled to his Helian mercs by crushing his palms together repeatedly and deliberately, signaling them to switch from spread ammo to shattershield rounds. All of the mercs echoed the signal to the nearest comrade and followed this by systematically taking turns dropping their magazines and replacing them.

Helios was moving into position outside of Axton's phalanx while the Vault Hunters got into position inside of it. Gaige yanked Blake up from his seat with her claw.

"Alright", she said as she held him up by his coat, "I don't know yet if you're a fascist or not yet but we can't have you dying on us."

Maya blasted a Helian soldier in the head. It killed him unsurprisingly but another soldier returned fire and the results shocked her actually.

"Um", Maya said in a concerned tone to Axton, "what's wrong with your phalanx?"

She said this because each round Helios was firing was dissolving a piece of the phalanx around the Vault Hunters. The way the phalanx works is it is a dome shield comprised of dozens of smaller digital shields, hence the name 'phalanx'. Wherever Blitzfield's men were firing on the phalanx, was dissipating it piece by piece.

"Goddammit", shouted Axton, backing away and returning fire. "What kind of ammo is that?"

"I don't know", She said, getting a lock on Joanna, "but why haven't I felt that girl before if she's a siren?"

"What", asked Gaige.

"Never mind", replied Maya, forming miniature wings of fire herself. "I'll just have meet Helios with Helios and a little Acid Cloud."

"Good", Gaige digistructing Deathtrap with her new claw. "Sucka MCs must get dissed."

A Loverbot approached a wide opening in the phalanx where it could get to Maya with its bonesaws and its cutting lasers.

"Damn, girl", it said in its best baritone voice, "anybody tell you that you look damn good. I wanna have your babies."

She hit it with the boreanator, which was enhanced by a cloud of acid and fire. It retreated from her on fire and simultaneously corroding, saying in a calm, baritone voice, "So hot you make me meeeeelt."

* * *

Meanwhile, Deathtrap was going crazy on the Loverbots. It was in between two of them and hitting them with quite a frenzy of twirling claws, powered by acid because Gaige was simultaneously hitting it with caustic rounds.

"That's my bot", she shouted with glee.

Adam looked back at Joanna from behind cover.

"Sir", she called back as she worked on tearing down Axton's phalanx, asking for his consent.

"We need to end this now", he yelled.

"My pleasure", she replied, as she planted both of her bare, black-nail polished feet on the ground as well as her hands. "Phasemorph", she yelled. The floor beneath her feet began to transmutate into a deep purple, crystalline mass; this continued until it made its way to the floor beneath Axton's shield.

"Christ", yelled Axton as he tried to back away from the rapidly spreading crystals.

Maya focused her powers in her core and put a phaselock bubble around all five of them, suspending all of them in the air. This avoided Joanna's crystals just in time as they forced Axton's remaining phalanx shield components to shatter, allowing the mini-shields to plummet and dissipate.

"Who are you", Maya yelled at Joanna.

"Joanna Allen", she answered. "born and raised to make sirens like you suffer. Agonize, bitch."

With that, Joanna closed her eyes and reached out for Maya mentally like Maya herself has done before on an interplanetary level. Maya gripped her exposed arm in response. Her tattoos began to throb all over her body and constrict, twisting against her flesh as if her own markings (and by extension, her body) were turning against her. Maya gripped the arm with her other hand, attempting to keep her markings from ripping right off of her body. She began to groan and yell out.

"Maya", Axton asked, reaching for her, "what's wrong?"

He felt her arm and the squirming mass beneath the skin. He didn't know that it was the agitated swirling of her very physical power, her very essence screaming out in pain; he just knew something was wrong.

The phaselock field started lowering to the ground and the energy started caving in on them.

"Gaige", Axton shouted at her, "we have to get out; Maya's hurting _bad_!"

"Got it", she answered back, "DT, buddy! Forget about them! We need a way out!"

Deathtrap was hovering in battle with two Loverbots, swirling around them in battle and trying desperately to cut them to pieces with its caustic-powered claws. It had enough time to give her an angry grunt.

"I know", Gaige shouted. "We'll get them later! For now, give us an out back here!"

Deathtrap immediately zoomed away from the Loverbots and beelined for its creator; On the way, he decided to take a swipe at Adam. He missed when Adam saw this coming and rolled out of the way; it was worth a try. The Helians fired at the robot in response. The rounds tore several gaping holes through him and left him sparking. He even faltered somewhat but his dedication to his creator persevered and he zoomed past them to the wall behind them. He tore hole right through it.

"Okay", Axton shouted to the others, "We're leaving!"

He scooped the barely conscious Maya into his arms and cradled her. He and the others retreated from the bar almost as soon as Maya's phaselock field dissipated.

"Sir", a helian merc called to Adam as he shot a shatterpoint round into a man's legs, "vault hunters on the move!"

"Well, what are you waiting for", Adam wondered in frustration, "my written permission? After them!"

* * *

The Vault Hunters already knew Overlook had their shield up and they didn't want to expose them to the dangerous Helios mercs anyway. Axton held Maya in his arms, where she bounced around limply; Gaige yanked Blake with them by the arm, with Deathtrap keeping up beside them; Zer0 pulled up the rear with a fiery SMG, making sure they didn't get hit by chasing mercs. They rapidly made their way to the Catch-A-Ride.

They needed to get to a Fast Travel Station fast. The one in Overlook was off limits so they had to move and cover some ground. Maya wasn't stirring and Axton wasn't going to lose her.

"Gaige", he yelled. "Get us a car!"

"Allow me", said Blake quickly going to the terminal and selecting a bandit technical to digistruct. He never thought he would ever ride in such a makeshift vehicle and with vault hunters at that. "Crude but effective."

Unlike the standard runner vehicles, a bandit-"designed" technical could hold a squad of killers, while the runner only seated a driver and a gunner.

Axton quickly hopped into the back with Maya in his arms and scooted to the back of the bed towards the driver and passenger seats. Maya stirred a bit in his arms and called his name. It was the first time she had moved or even breathed since she passed out. He cradled her face and slapped it gently.

"Maya", Axton whispered. "Come on, girl. Stay with us; we need you on this one."

"Ax", Maya struggled to whisper, "that girl…so…cold…inside…"

He shushed her.

"You don't have to talk", he told her. "Just don't die on me."

"I'm sorry, DT", Gaige said as she prepared to de-digistruct Deathtrap. He gave a dissatisfied grunt as he began to dissipate into physical binary numbers beneath Gaige's new claw. She hated doing it but with DT's current design he just wasn't compatible with her whenever she was in a vehicle. Even though he hovered, he would always separate from her and lag behind as his speed wasn't high enough and he would just drift off; it was too much of a hassle. Until she found some kind of a fix for it, it was just easier to deconstruct him whenever they drove. She quickly got in the driver seat while Blake followed and got in the passenger side. She hated it but it seemed for at least a little while, they had to protect the guy. She was sitting next to the guy who represented everything she hated about everything. Yay.

"You really are quite brilliant, aren't you", asked Blake, buckling himself in beside her.

"Duh", she said automatically before stopping, "wait, was that a question?"

"It really is quite ingenious the way you devised such a digistruct device", he said, pointing to her claw. "You are extremely dedicated as well, clearly. Only, you have hit a wall haven't you? You don't have the technology and resources you need to do what you truly want. Even your prize project remains incomplete. You could have everything at Hyperion. Satisfying work; a staff of like-minded individuals; a lucrative salary; interplanetary travel and expenses paid for…"

Gaige began to chuckle as she started the technical before her laughter became uproarious.

"I like you", she said, still laughing. "Unlike Jack, you're actually funny. I would never work for Hyperion or any other fascist corporation, no offense. You look at robots and all you see are slaves and profit."

"What do you see", wondered Blake.

"I see awesomeness and potential for incredible progress for them and for us", she said. "I can't install lasers on a human being."

"Says who", asked Blake.

Zer0 jumped in the back with Axton and Maya. He slapped his SMG on the side of the technical and yelled for Gaige to get a move on. No, it wasn't in haiku.

She put the pedal to the metal and skidded away from Overlook. They had a feeling Blitzfield wouldn't be far behind. They turned right, going through the tunnel towards the nearest fast-travel station.

And oh so right they were, they barely made it past the bridge when Zer0 caught sight of three looming, modified Helio land skiffs. Adam himself was just behind the driver of one of them.

"Crap", yelled Axton when he looked up and saw them. "Get them, Zer0!"

"Is that a request", asked Zer0 as he leveled his SMG at one of them and began to fire. A sarcastic smiley-face emoticon with a tongue sticking displayed on his mask.

"I want you to know", Blake yelled at Gaige. "Even if we die here, I didn't pay Blitzfield to kill you. I hold our peace treaty very dear, even if you don't!"

"I don't care", shouted Gaige right back at him. "And we're not dying, dictator."

Gaige was forced to veer off away from the path towards the fast-travel and take the straight way to the bridge until they could shake Helios. One of the skiffs accelerated until it was parallel with Gaige. One of the mercs tried to jump over onto the bed of the tech, but Axton reached and put him in a headlock while holding him upright, stretching him out between both vehicles. The man screamed as Axton punched him in the helmet and his fellow mercs tried to pull him back into the skiff. The skiff veered away slightly as Axton let go, causing the merc to fall out his buddies' arms and get run over by the back tire of the technical.

Adam simply laughed at this and called the merc an idiot under his breath.

The skiffs separated; with Adam's falling back, likely to protect their commander, while the other two sped up dramatically until they were parallel to Gaige's technical on both sides. They began to close their distance, intending to trap them in. All of this, while Gaige was trying to avoid every bump and rock in the Highland's uneven terrain; the skiffs didn't have these problem as they were hovering vehicles.

Zer0 pulled another SMG out of his SDU, the Energizing Bane.

"SWAPPIN' WEAPONS", it screamed in its horrible howl. Axton groaned, even in the chaos. Zer0 knew the bane annoyed everybody and it was probably why he kept it, honestly.

"Shut up", he said as he spread his arms and aimed at both of the skiffs on either side of them.

He pulled the trigger on both of them with the Bane screaming its terrible cry.

The Helian mercs tried to duck down from the fire but a few of them were hit. Before he could penetrate anybody's shields, though, both of his guns suddenly stopped. All they did was click as if they were out of ammo, yet he knew both of them carried fifty-four in a magazine. He fired twenty-seven from his first SMG and eighteen from the Bane. He was never wrong about that. Something was wrong.

From his skiff, Adam smiled a knowing smile as he tapped his Peace Treaty button.

"WHAT HAPPENED", cried the Bane.

"What's wrong", asked Axton.

Both the skiffs rammed the technical on both sides, trapping it like a sandwich. Adam's skiff began to close in a little from the rear. Joanna, who was seated behind Adam, loaded the last rocket into a rocket launcher and handed it to Adam. Adam, in turn, lifted it to his left shoulder and placed the crosshair directly in front of his golden right eye as he closed his left blue one. He zoomed his scope and locked right onto Axton and Maya, preparing to fire.

The merc in the passenger side of the skiff to Gaige's left thought it was a good idea to put a gun directly in Gaige's face.

She used her real right arm to keep the technical steady.

"Talk to the hand, sucka", she shouted as she used her newly installed digistruct claw to swipe across the merc's masked face. Not only did the swipe cut pieces of helmet and face but the impact also broke the man's neck, killing him instantly. It didn't sway the technical though as she was still sandwiched though she tried swerving into both of them.

"Do something", Gaige shouted back to the others. "I can't drive AND save you!"

Always the quick thinker, Zer0 leaped right onto one of the skiffs. As expected, the Helian mercs panicked and frantically tried to fight him without coordinating their attack. This played right into Zer0's hands. While they converged and stabbed at Zer0 on one of the skiffs, it was actually a simple hologram decoy; they were too excited to realize this. Zer0 was actually on the _other_ skiff.

He sliced a Helian soldier's arm off immediately before grabbing another Helian soldier and lining him up with another, who was hesitant to shoot his buddy. He then rammed his sword through them, impaling them both on his heated blade. A soldier right next began firing but Zer0 immediately knocked his barrel away, only catching one round that skimmed the side of his helmet.

A red smiley face actually displayed on the front of his mask in light of this because he knew that Helios weapons could be fired while his were seemingly disabled.

Adam was a little transfixed on Zer0 while he fought. He was quite impressed actually.

"Sir", yelled Joanna from behind him.

"Oh right", he remembered and fired a rocket at the others.

Zer0 yanked the soldier arms in the way of the approaching rocket and forced him to fire a dozen rounds, exploding the rocket only a few meters in front of Adam's skiff. This caused Adam's driver to go erratic and crash into a rock.

"**** yeah, Zer0", shouted Axton upon seeing this.

Zer0 then rammed a palm underneath the Helian soldier's chin and kicked him square in the chest, knocking him off of the skiff. The only other merc on Zer0's skiff was the driver. Zer0 took one look at him and the driver tried to pull out a pistol. Zer0 smashed his face against the wheel with one arm and flung him out of the skiff with that same arm. Zer0 then hurried and put the skiff back on course when it became erratic.

"Hey, Gaige", yelled Axton, "hit the brakes!"

She obliged and let the neighboring skiff to zoom ahead of them. While they were preoccupied with Zer0's decoy, Ax was gracious enough to leave them a grenade in the bed of the skiff. The vault hunters watched as their skiff blew sky high.

Axton watched this and whistled.

"Now I see why you have so much fun", commented Blake. "I also see why I'd never want to be your enemies."

Gaige laughed at this as Zer0 drove his new skiff over to them.

"As usual", Zer0 said, climbing in the back with Axton and Maya. "The Vault hunters take this one. Anyone hungry?

"Zer0", Gaige turning around in her seat to look at them, "I don't like you sometimes but I have to admit that with that, you have reached _bawse_ status. Maya, you okay?"

"Actually, yeah", she said, clearly and stirring in Axton's arms. "Um, Ax, you can let go now."

He still had one hand under her shoulders and the other behind her thighs.

"Oh", he said, slightly embarrassed and moving his arms away. She crept away from him.

"Are you sure you're okay", he asked, bringing his arms down to his knees. "You scared us a little back there."

"Yeah", she said, rubbing her marked arm. "It was just being around that siren. It was horrible. I felt like I was being torn apart."

"I don't mean to interrupt", Blake said doing just that, "but I think it would be in our best interests to get away from here as soon as possible."

"Are we okay with bringing this guy to Sanctuary with us", asked Gaige.

"He's one of the most important people in this galaxy and Hyperion can't get inside Sanctuary anyway", Ax said. "We would have them in a messed up predicament anyway."

"I'll be a hostage-of-sorts", Blake said.

"Yeah", Ax stumbled in saying. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize", answered Blake. "I would like to move however, before somebody else comes along to try to put bullets in our heads."

With that, Gaige put the technical in gear and they went along on their merry way.

* * *

A few miles back, Joanna was combing the remains of their skiff. Some surviving Helian mercs were sitting off nearby, gathering their senses.

Joanna had phasemorphed her arms to their crystalline biostructure, enhancing her strength as she hurled rock and debris with ease to look for Adam.

"Adam", she yelled. "Adam!"

She knew a long time that although he had a hand in her becoming the woman she was, that she was in love with him and if something happened to him, she might as well be dead herself. In a way, she was already.

"I'm up here, Jo", Adam called down from a jutted peak above her. He was kneeling on his haunches, watching something in the distance. "You should come see the view. It's…something."

Joanna climbed atop of a rock below him and hurried up the small peak to be by his side as she always was.

"Do you see them", he asked. He was talking about the Vault Hunters approaching a Fast-Travel Station in the distance. He could see them as if they were only a couple of feet in front of him, although they were miles and miles away.

"Barely", Joanna commented, squinting. "That's them?"

"Yep", he said as he squint his blue left eye, tracking them. "Oh, now they're gone."

They had indeed fast-traveled to Sanctuary right before his golden eye.

"Sir", Joanna called out to him as he stood up, "why do we even bother with them? Without the vaults, they won't even serve a purpose."

Adam turned to her and held her chin in his thumb and index finger like a lover to draw her attention. She watched his dimmed bionic eyes rotate within themselves from beneath Adam's dust goggles, tracking and analyzing her internally and externally before sending the information back to his brain on neural passageways. One was blue and the other was amber-golden; both had different uses when isolated but together they surpassed a human's natural eyesight.

"Joanna, my angel of peace and salvation", he murmured. "That's why they have to dispatched; without the vaults, they are just mass murderers. They will keep killing for sport. Their death tolls must number in the hundreds of thousands. Individually. Without the vaults, they would be worse. Yet, the vaults inspire even more killers. They're just the worse. Vaults and Vault Hunters go hand in hand. Both of them have to go."

"Did I do good today, sir", she asked with complete devotion and wonder.

"You can do no bad in my eyes, Joanna", he said, leaning down as if to kiss her forehead. "You are the light in my cave of necessary violence. Without you, I would be another Zer0. Did you see him today?"

"What a savage, inhuman monster", she said, looking at his face with utter an complete devotion. "They all are; if anybody can overcome them, you can."

Adam grabbed Joanna about the shoulders and separated himself from her. He stared into her eyes again. For a second, she thought he was going to kiss her. Only, he just gave her four pats on the head before jogging past her to slide down the rock.

"Come on, mercs", he called to his men. "Let's see how much fun we can get out of my puppet king and his band of merry cannibals!"

This brought excitement and cheering from his mercenaries, including Joanna. Even in a humbling defeat and casualties, Helios knew their purpose under Adam Blitzfield wasn't lost as they still had many more tricks up their sleeves.


	10. Episode 4, Part 2

Ax wouldn't have liked it but screw him; ever since the age of six, Sal has kept at least one skag companion. Although skag were generally seen as dirty scavengers and to be avoided on Pandora, his family had always been the types to be friendly with skags. Ever since he had befriended Dukino, he just couldn't stay away. The juvenile had an effect on him like no other. He just wasn't the type to lie in bed licking his wounds. He had to do _something_.

Although he didn't feel like he was up to go to the meeting with Blake (and he was more than a little pissed at that), he thought he'd be more than up for a trip to Lynchwood to pay a visit to dear young Dukino to feed him if nothing else.

The steroids gave Sal some mobility back, sure, but his body still wasn't one hundred percent. He resorted to using a pair of crutches taken from "Dr." Zed to shuffle himself along. Also because of his height, Cutty had to cut a chunk out from the middle section and then weld them back together just so that they wouldn't be awkward for Sal to use. He made sure to wear his Lynchwood sheriff's badge when he fast-traveled there.

When Sal and his friends took down the former unnamed sheriff, they were sworn in as the new sheriffs and protectors of the town; as in Salvador, Axton, Maya, Zer0 and Gaige were all collectively the sheriff, with badges and all, while deputy winger held things in relative control in their absence.

* * *

When Salvador emerged from the Lynchwood train station, limping on his crutches, a crowd quickly gathered around him. Ever since getting rid of the tyrant that ran it before, the people loved them, even the bandits. People were still hung occasionally, just for things like murder and robbery not just for looking at the deputies wrong. One could say Lynchwood was the most lawful place on Pandora besides Sanctuary and the people were showing their appreciation, even if the Vault Hunters had little to do with its actual continued order. All of this was a bit jarring to him and he waited patiently, sitting still and bore the unpleasantness that he felt in his body as they patted him and almost knocked him over.

"It's good to see you back, Sheriff", called Winger over Echo. "Well, one of you at least."

"Hey", Sal said through gritted teeth, "you mind dispersing this crowd, deputy?"

"What was that", Winger said, "I can't hear you over everybody else."

"I said get rid of these people before I pull out Law and start shooting!"

Winger got the message and immediately got on the horn.

"Okay, citizens! The sheriff isn't feeling so good today so just let him go on his way! Go on now! Git!"

The crowd reluctantly began to disperse and Salvador was finally allowed to hop down from the porch.

* * *

Just as Salvador was about to hump it through the valley to Dukino's lair, some kid ran past him and stopped right in front of him. He was dark-skinned, dirty and had tattered clothes. He couldn't have been older than ten. Sal suspected that the kid was one of the child miners that the Sheriff had used to pull eridium from crevices. It was a wonder the kid didn't have the shivers.

"Out of my way, kid. I don't have time for this."

"Mister, you're a vault hunter, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"When I grow up, I want to be a vault hunter just like you and the others. Nobody will ever make me do anything ever again. Look at my gun."

The kid pulled out a dingy little repeater and showed it to him. Salvador dropped his right crutch and held out his hand, asking for it. He looked it over after the kid handed it to him willingly.

"Where did you get this", Sal asked.

"It was in the belongings of a bank robber that was hanged yesterday", he explained. "One of the deputies turned his back on it for a second so I took it and ran. I have some bullets too."

He reached into his pocket and showed him a small handful of bullets.

Sal laughed at that, paining himself.

"Well, you have the looting part down", he said, handing it back. "but if you want to be a vault hunter, you're going to need a better gun. Skags eat absolutely everything. You might find a decent gun in the guts of one."

"But we're not allowed to shoot skag", complained the kid. "The deputies would shoot me."

"When you're good enough so that nobody could stop you", said Salvador, "then you know that you're ready to be a vault hunter."

With that, Sal leaned down to pick up his crutch and moved past the kid, letting him ponder his words. The kid watched him leave and realized he found a new idol to emulate.

* * *

Salvador took the elevator down to Dukino's lair with fresh skag meat in his pack; it was the only food Dukino would touch. He was taken by surprise, however, by the scene he witnessed at the bottom. Dukino, whom had grown considerably in just the two weeks since his rescue by Sal and company, was on his back getting his relatively soft belly rubbed by none other Dr. Shanna De Lumen. Anya, her very large skag companion was circling them in short lunges and dug her sharp nails into the dust repeatedly. She was still wary of this Dukino and watched him for any aggression; though he was younger, Dukino was already slightly bigger than her and matched the size of an alpha skag. Dukino himself, simply panted and squirmed happily under De Lumen's touch. It stabbed at Sal's heart. What a traitor.

"What the hell are you doing here", shouted Salvador. He got their attention: Dukino looked up suddenly, De Lumen immediately shot up and Anya hunched forward ready to spring an attack.

"You", shouted a shocked De Lumen. "H-How are you even standing?"

"I'm not that weak to let a bitch tactic like that get to me", he said, crutching towards them. "Now get away from my skag before I sic him on you."

"This guy", De Lumen said, patting him as he rolled over onto his belly. "I don't think so. He's still a pup. Adorable."

Sal threw down his right crutch and aimed his Law at her. Anya roared at him in response.

"I'm not going to ask you again", he said, thumbing back his hammer. "Get away from Dukino or I'm going to put a few in you and in that ugly skag's mouth if it opens at me again."

"No", shouted De Lumen, throwing up her arms and semi-shielding Anya as if that would stop Sal's bullets. "Okay, we'll leave. All I want is to be left alone. I didn't know you cared for him. I'm sorry. I'll leave."

He moved closer, still training his gun on her.

"You think I would just let you go", he asked. "After what you did? Nobody does that to me; Nobody!"

De Lumen realized there would be no reasoning with this man. He was going to kill her and likely Anya no matter what she said, so she simply closed her eyes and waited for it to happen.

The next moment Anya reached up and sucked De Lumen's dark blonde hair into her mouth and plopped to the ground, yanking De Lumen onto her back.

"No, Anya", cried De Lumen. "No! Bad girl!"

The intensity of their situation and the fact that was broken by such a sudden, absurd event confused the hell out of Salvador. He didn't know how to react so he just laughed. He picked up his crutch and moved over to them.

"See this", he said upon reaching her, "this is even better than killing you."

She groaned and laid there, limp.

"So is she trying to eat you", he asked. "Or…?"

"She just likes sucking on my hair", De Lumen admitted. "It calms her down."

"I see", Sal said as he used his crutches to painfully lower himself to the ground to sit crossed -legged next to her stretched form. He then reached over into her long coat, almost fondling. She struggled a bit, though helplessly. He had her by the bra-straps so to say.

"What are you doing", she asked frantically.

"Is this what you used on me", he asked when fished out a glass vial of mostly transparent liquid with the slightest green tinge.

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"No", she said, "but I did use a form of pheromones. Stalker pheromones used by females to repel unwanted male attention. Very potent. You must understand; I can't leave and won't leave Pandora. Not after what I had a hand in."

"You really should've", answered Salvador as he shook his head. "A girl like you…shouldn't have lasted this long. Do you know what these bandits would do to you if they ever got a hold of you?"

"My friends would never let them", stated De Lumen.

"_Right_", hummed Sal. "Look, Doctor…"

"Shanna De Lumen", she finished for him.

"Shanna", he said, "have you ever fired a gun?"

"Never", she answered.

"You really should think about seeking refuge in Sanctuary", he said. "Nobody could survive out here on their own. Nobody."

"Don't you get it", she asked. "I'm never alone. I'm safer in the wilderness than you are, killer."

"Sure you are", said Sal, making small circles in the dust with a gloved finger. "I was only born here. What do I know? So, what are you going to do now? Do you have a home?"

Anya finally finally released Shanna, allowing the disgraced veterinarian to sit up and run her hands through her soaked, blonde hair that was coated in the skag's thick, green saliva. Shanna was somewhat surprised as she was openly using her bare hands to wipe away the gunk but Sal didn't seem to care about it like her coworkers absolutely would. She knew he was just a savage native of the planet but it was still nice to see that she didn't have to worry about somebody objecting to her being herself. She flung a wad of the gloop to the dirt.

"Would you think me weird if I told you I prefer to live amongst the elements", she asked him.

"Yeah, I would", he admitted, rubbing his Mohawk. "But, hell, I'm not the most normal guy. Still, has anybody called you crazy?"

"All the time", she lamented.

He looked over at Dukino and Anya; the two were wrestling in the dust. For all of his size, she was far more aggressive and was rolling him around on his back at will. It looked like a date to Salvador.

"Same here", replied Salvador to Shanna. "Listen, if you have anything that boosts my recovery from that pheromone crap; all is forgiven."

* * *

Though they were uneasy allies, the Vault Hunters definitely couldn't allow President Blake inside Sanctuary. After the run in with Helios, they drove him to the outskirts of the Highlands for his pickup. A transport vessel was waiting for him. Axton thought it funny that Blake was worlds away and yet he had everything waiting on him. He looked at the faces of his security team, waiting patiently with expectant smiles on their faces; as if things are just going to work out for them because they're Hyperion. It would be so easy to put a gun, maybe the same gun he used on Handsome Jack, to Blake's head and kill that optimism. After all the animosity with the company, there was no way he could just bury the hatchet like that completely.

Only, killing Blake would have no longer lasting effect on Hyperion than killing Jack did. Jack's death actually saw a rise in stock for the empire. Since Brick's attacks on the company and Blake's perceived lack of control over the situation, Hyperion would likely thank the Vault Hunters for killing Blake as well and then replace him with another douchebag.

So, Axton and the others let Blake out of that runner and in return-

"I never thought I would see the day", Blake said, straightening his suit, "when I thank you for saving my life."

Blake was standing amongst his own men now, facing the lowly vault hunters that he would've had killed under different circumstances.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd meet somebody worse than you", Axton admitted.

"I want to show you my deepest gratitude", Blake said, taking a cylinder object from one of his men. "The key to your very desires."

He handed the yellow cylinder over to Maya, who of course asked what it was.

"You wanted to go swimming", Blake answered. "I just want to make sure you know how to swim. Throw it in the water to activate it."

His transport opened its cargo port and Blake immediately moved for the door.

"Wait", Maya said. "Who the hell are these Helios people and what is up with you and Adam?"

Blake turned around when he got on the ship.

"Here's a challenge, Vault Hunters", Blake said. "You manage to kill him, maybe I'll tell you one day."

With that, Blake entered the ship and the doors closed behind him. His guard cautiously backed away from their former enemies and entered the passenger hold of the ship.

"Damn Hyperion", commented Gaige as the four of them walked away. The ship lifted into the air behind them.

"What is it", she asked, tiptoeing over Maya's shoulder to look at the object. It was yellow with a segmented indention in the middle and a bulb on the end.

"It's a beacon", answered Zer0 after taking just one look.

* * *

Shanna told Salvador that she was the head caretaker for the animals at the Exploitation Preserve. She knew every animal as if they were her brothers, sisters and children; which made it so much worse when she was forced by Hyperion to watch their cruel slag experiments on them.

Salvador figured that since she knew the animals so well, she would be able to recognize the wing of a certain Stalker. He had heard Axton and Maya talk of the vault symbol on the wing of the stalker that almost killed them so many times it had become nauseating. He found it easy to swipe it from Tannis' apartment, even in his weakened condition. She was so focused inwards on insane ramblings that she didn't notice anybody unless they addressed her. He took the wing from her and brought it to De Lumen in Dukino's domain.

"Where did you get this", De Lumen asked him.

"From the biggest stalker I've ever seen", answered Salvador. "I've lived here all my life and never have I seen one so big. Whew, it was something."

"The wingspan is incredible", she said, turning it over in her arms. "It must have shrunk considerably but still…incredible. It isn't ours however, I'm sorry to say. They marked the animals with Hyperion brands, not this. What is it?"

"Eridian glyph", Salvador said. "It represents the vaults."

"So, why is a vault symbol on the wing of a stalker", asked the one person who would know beyond the shadow of a doubt whether Hyperion carried such a creature.

* * *

It had been a while since the hunters had been to Marcus' indoor range and they had both a lot of steam to blow off and weapons to test. Each of them wore the transparent ear plugs they usually wore.

Axton momentarily wondered where Salvador was as nobody in Sanctuary had seen the man, though he didn't dwell on it for too long. He learned a while back that Salvador is going to do what Salvador is going to do; nothing Axton can do or say to him was going to change that. He knew what the group was going to do so he'd be back.

After emptying their magazines, Axton called a ceasefire to the others. They were shooting disabled loader units, putting small holes in them.

"Zer0", Axton said. "Let's try that Helios rifle."

Zer0 nodded and raised a Helios-manufactured assault rifle lifted from one of the mercs. The other three gathered around Zer0 to get a better look. Marcus viewed all of this on his installed cameras. Using his pulley system, he replaced the battered loader with a brand spanking new one.

One round from the rifle tore a gaping hole in the chest and detached one of the arms. Another tore the loader in half from the midsection. After those, Zer0 just let loose on the loader and within three seconds, it was basically gone. Maya put a hand over her gaping mouth in shock. Zer0 took one look at them and detached his shield from his hip: the Hide of Terramorphus. He flung the shield into the firing line and into his rifle's path. He never did like using it; it took some of the challenge away from firefights.

"No", cried out Gaige, protesting.

Zer0 fired two rounds into it, shattering it into a dozen digital pieces. He turned to the three compatriots who looked back at him in shock.

"It's serious now", Zer0 said. "We should take this to Marcus. Otherwise, we're screwed."

* * *

Marcus disassembled one of the shatterpoint rounds right in front of the Vault Hunters with his tools. He studied its fragments with funny-looking specs, which Gaige mocked him mentally for. He chuckled to himself.

"This is a nasty piece of work", Marcus remarked.

"Yeah", asked Maya. "No crap."

"These rounds are longer and slimmer than most rounds first of all", he said. "It's allowed to go much faster than most, allowing more penetration. After that, it explodes into explosive little pieces for an even nastier surprise."

"Like shrapnel", Axton asked.

"Torgue shrapnel", corrected Marcus.

"First, those damn robots of his", Maya said. "Now this; these Helios guys are sick."

"Got any new guns", asked Zer0 to Marcus. "As you can see, things have changed. They could outgun us.

"I might have something", Marcus informed them as he led them back to the range. He handed them all sun goggles as he passed them.

"What are these for", asked Maya.

* * *

"The Automatic Guyver", Marcus called the first gun he showed them. It was a silver e-tech shotgun but with the extended shell chambers, it more resembled a grenade launcher. "Fires six shells that are that instantly converted to bouncing grenades of exploding light."

He fired three consecutive shots that dropped three cylinder shaped grenades to the ground just inside the firing range. They bounced until they hit the loader in the center. Three quick flashes overtook their vision. It likely would've blinded them had they not been wearing the goggles. Marcus took his goggles off, signaling the others to do the same. They saw that the walls at the back of the range were scorched and that the loader was completely dissipated.

* * *

"Next I want to show you the Bloodthirsty Hercules", said Marcus, lifting a pinkish and slightly glowing, e-tech assault rifle with a scope. It's muzzle was between two overarching, serrated blades that resembled a Badass Varkid's pincers.

"It's fire-rate and magazine size are somewhat low", admitted Marcus, "but…"

He aimed downrange at a loader that was in a column in front of two other. He fired five, steady, consecutive pink lasers. Each round penetrated all three loaders.

"Hah", Marcus yelled. "It can penetrate bomb shelters and bypasses shields. Also, there's this."

Marcus squeezed a secondary trigger. The pincers clasped on each other audibly like crossing swords. The pincers then extended outwards from the rifle on a previously unseen motor and began whirling in a circular motion with great RPM.

"It makes for a devastating melee weapon as well", he continued.

"Wow", commented the awestruck Gaige.

"So how would you play with the Hercules", asked Marcus with a chuckle, "the short game or the long con?"

* * *

"Finally, there's this", said Marcus. He picked up a bipod-equipped, cream-colored sniper rifle and setting it on the range counter. It had a medical red cross painted on its star chamber."The Healthy Marsbar."

"What", asked Gaige with a giggle. "Are we supposed to eat it or something?"

"Laugh it up, Vault Hunter", said Marcus to her before he aimed downrange at another loader. He fired five rounds, crumbling it. Five digitized red crosses flew in the air towards him. Also, two of his expended rounds digitized and flew back towards the weapon as well.

"It's low-damaging compared to other snipers", explained Marcus. "But it has +180% critical damage, it drains health from enemies and there's a 35% chance that expended rounds digitize and rejoin your magazine as new rounds. Good as new! So, what do you think?"

Axton looked at the others, getting positive nods.

"You outdid yourself, friend", Axton said. "We'll take all three."

The two shook hands.

"But we won't pay more than fifteen grand for each."

"Are you trying to rob me", asked Marcus.

"Screw you, Brick", they heard to their right. They looked and saw that Mordecai was standing there, drunkenly shooting at a loader with a Droog Sniper. He was hitting it in the arms or missing rather than getting critical hits. "Screw you, Hyperion! Screw all of you!"

"I let him shoot all the rounds he wants", whispered Marcus to them. "It really is pitiful, huh?"

"Shut up and sell us the guns", said Axton as he quickly walked away. The others quickly followed, trying not see Mordy fall any more in their eyes.

* * *

Gaige was in her private lab again with assistants Deathtrap and Claptrap. She had dissembled the system core of a loverbot Deathtrap had retrieved for her during their battle with Helios. In their war with Handsome Jack, Gaige had experimented with some of the loader parts that they destroyed. Using her digipad to download their programming and rearrange it, she managed to devise a master hack tool that she used to turn a number of Jack's own loaders against him. Hyperion was too bothered with its own profits and it would be too expensive and time-consuming to program loaders much differently from each other. This turned out to be a big part of Jack's downfall in his battle against the Vault Hunters in the Warrior's Vault; she had his own loaders attack him when he summoned them.

Now, she was doing the same thing with this loverbot core and turn the loverbots against Helios. She had it opened, powered and linked to her digipad where she was sifting through the programming code.

"Um, Mechromancer", Claptrap said. "Why doesn't DT talk?"

Deathtrap looked over and down at Claptrap with a grunt. This made Claptrap rub its mitts nervously together. Claptrap knew it was dangerous to even ask Gaige a question while she was working when DT was around.

"Um", Claptrap said. "I mean he doesn't talk, not really."

"Well", Gaige said, not letting Claptrap interrupt her focus. "I've always meant to give Deathtrap a personality but I can never decide what he should be like besides my guardian. Also, I may be the bossness at hacking and rearranging code but writing it from scratch isn't exactly my strong suit. I don't know, I could just be lazy. I really don't know, dude."

"These Helios guys really are a piece of work", said Gaige. "They're designed to shut down if they commit murder but dismemberment and bone-breaking is A-OK."

"Mechromancer", Claptrap asked. "Are you guys going on another adventure that you haven't told me about? I mean, you're buying guns; you're hacking robots; and everybody's meeting with Tannis. Is there another vault?"

Gaige suddenly stopped what she was doing. Deathtrap turned his head to Claptrap. Gaige turned in her chair to look at Claptrap.

"Did I say 'vault'", asked Claptrap, backing away from the two of them. "As if I know what I'm talking about? I've never actually been to one! Let's just forget what I was talking about. Analyzing Memory…Results: Nothing! See, I forgot already!"

Gaige stood up and walked towards him with the claws of her mechanical hand glinting in the light and Deathtrap blocking his path.

"See, Clap", Gaige said, crossing her arms but running her claws against each other and making sharp knife sounds. "Some things don't have to be so loud. Some secrets have to be kept. You understand, right?"

Claptrap began to scream, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

* * *

It was midnight and the time that the Vault Hunters had decided upon. Zer0 volunteered himself for the first stage of their plan. That plan was: Steal the still-charged vault key from their vault while Lilith was asleep, take the Fast Travel back to the Highlands, try to find Salvador (who still hadn't returned), find Rocket-Tooth Joey, and find a way down to the vault. All of this was decided with Tannis in her apartment. So, the vault hunters waited there patiently and once again relied on Zer0 to do his thing. Their fate was on his shoulders.

* * *

Zer0 didn't use the front door and the stairs; it was the rooftops for him. His years of experience as an assassin aided him well in padding silently towards the Raiders HQ balcony. There weren't doors or a window but a Crimson Raiders banner was draped over the entrance to Lilith's bedroom. He wouldn't kill her but he was more than ready to knock her out if he needed to, especially before she powered up.

He slowly moved a corner of the crimson banner out of the way and saw that the room was dark but not empty. Lilith was snoring loudly in her bed. She wasn't exactly a peaceful sleeper. An ellipsis appeared on Zer0's visor showing his flat surprise. Zer0 crept past her towards the vault. He could feel its aura within its depth; he could even see an ethereal outline of its shape in the metal. He caressed the spot where he could see the outline and drew the key towards him…

* * *

Zer0 found himself disappointed that Lilith couldn't feel the key leaving in her sleep. He realized then that Maya was just more connected to the vaults than Lilith or Angel were; he made it to the balcony without incident. As consumed in his own thoughts he was, he could still feel the auras of several figures on the roof above and behind him.

He turned around in time to cut in half a large, serrated ax that was thrown at him with his sword. Unfortunately, it was a decoy as Cutty the rat was right behind it. With Zer0's blade out of the way, he left open to get kicked by Cutty directly in the face with both feet.

Zer0 was knocked backwards in a flip over the balcony to the cobblestone below, with Cutty landing in front of him on both clawed feet. Zer0 landed on his back, but rolled over on his stomach. He was nearly knocked unconscious. The Vault Key rolled away from his grasp, allowing one of Cutty's midget rat brothers to pick it up. Cutty pulled his gas mask from his face up to the top of his head to get a better look at his victim. His yellow, reptilian-like eyes and cracked, pale face barely contained his savagery.

Zer0 struggled to push himself up but Cutty kicked him across the face, almost knocking him out. He then crawled over to him and tapped him on the helmet with a sharpened nail, causing his head to bob.

"Are you still there, Vault Hunter", he asked. "Pleasse ansswer; I ssssooo love to gloat!"

Zer0 groaned and looked up in a dazed state. Cutty hopped back in response.

"Oh goody", shouted Cutty. "Thanksss for the treeeat, Vault Hunter; Now, we can go hoooome!"

Zer0 looked up at the rats as they hopped up and down, dancing in celebration with the charged vault key in his face. Never had he felt so ashamed.

"You think you can have all of Pandora's spoils and leave nothing for usssssss", asked Cutty to Zer0. "Wrong!"

He sucked up a bloody loogie and hocked it right on Zer0.

"The Vaults and the key aren't yours", Cutty told him. "You'll die miserably if you reach for them again. The Hands that Hold the Vaults told us so and so it should be, suckersssss!"

Cutty and the rats took off and scampered down the street away from him. Zer0 lunged for the midget rat with the key but he pulled up a single stone and hopped into his tunnel. Zer0 dug one arm into the hole but the rat was already gone.

"Zer0", Maya called over echo. "What's going on? We're hearing some loud noises coming down the street."

"Rats", shouted Zer0. "Rats stole the key! Get to the Fast Travel station! It's the only way they can leave!"

"Crap", shouted Maya. She ran from Tannis' apartment, with Gaige and Axton hot on her trail.

* * *

Cutty was just outside the Fast Travel Station building with the other rats when their key holding midget emerged from the ground. They all ran into the building together to find that Salvador had just arrived. He was confused at first but saw the large vault key in the emaciated midget's arms.

He outdrew all of them and pulled out his rapid-fire shotgun. He quickly put a shell in all of them in quick succession. Seven of them.

Maya, Axton, and Gaige ran in to find Salvador straining to pick up the Vault Key from the array of rat corpses.

They stopped around them.

"I'm gone for one day and this is what happens", teased Salvador.

"Yep", Axton said with a smirk. "Thanks for the late game save."

"Where have you been", Maya asked. "We've been trying to call you for hours."

"I missed you too, sweetheart", said Salvador, puckering his lips at her.

"Whatever", said Maya, shaking her head.

While they were preoccupied, Cutty managed to crawl over to the Fast Travel station and teleport to The Fridge.

They turned in time to see him digitize but weren't too worried about it. They had the key so what did they care if one surviving rat made it back to the Fridge licking his wounds?

Zer0 arrived shortly afterwards.

"I'm real sorry, guys", Zer0. "They all caught me from behind; Dishonorable."

"It's fine, Zer0", Maya said. "It's fixed."

Dr. Tannis was the next to rush to the scene, carrying her bags of notes and Eridian scripture.

"Did you get the-", she started and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Salvador with the key. "Thank God. How nice of you to join us. We really have to go. People are starting to investigate all of the shooting. It would be pretty difficult to explain to Lilith."

"Okaaaay, minions", yelled Claptrap as he levitated in. "I'm ready to go!"

"Who invited Claptrap", wondered Ax.

"I did", answered Gaige.

"Um, why", he wailed.

"He figured out that we were chasing another vault", said Gaige.

"So", said Tannis. "You should have dissembled him."

"Hey", objected Claptrap.

"He's the last of his line", said Gaige. "I can't do that! Look, I weaponized him! He's coming and he's helping us!"

They heard approaching voices, including one that may have been Lilith's.

"Alright, Joey is already waiting on us", said Tannis. "Let's go."

They moved for the fast travel station.

"We'll talk about this later, Gaige", said Maya before they digitized at the Travel Station and left for the Highlands.

* * *

Next Episode: Episode 4, Part 3

Synopsis: The Reveal of the Underwater Vault!


	11. Episode 4, Part 3

"Opposite Scylla, under a fig tree, lived Charybdis. This was a huge whirlpool that would suck water in and out three times a day. If any boat happened to be near, Charybdis would surely swallow it."- Homer, "The Odyssey"

"Something's Wrong…"-?

* * *

There is no turning back. That was the general sentiment running through the minds of the vault hunters as they rode through the Highlands-Outwash in two runners towards the home of 'Rocket-Tooth' Joey, a man they only knew of because Dr. Tannis was convinced he knew where the vault was. What a ridiculous name. They stole the vault key from right under Lilith's nose, alienating them from the only allies and home they have. They knew was that Joey was a scuba diver of some sort; Tannis swore that she knew little else. They also knew that he was infatuated with her and that he claimed to have discovered the underwater vault even though Tannis had rarely spoken of the vault in the conversations with him.

"So, what's the story on this guy", asked Axton to Tannis. He was riding shotgun while Tannis was in the back. Maya was driving their runner.

"It's funny, Ax", Tannis quips, "we have a _still_-charged key; a key that otherwise wouldn't charge for a hundred years or without the acceleration of a siren force-fed tons of eridium and yet you still pose idiotic questions."

"So, let me get this straight", said Ax, trying to get a grip on the situation, "being cautious about a dude I don't even know equals …idiocy."

"In short, yes", she quipped. "In long…well, I'll spare you the "verbal beatdown" so to say. But in short, yes."

Axton shrugged in careless surrender and sat back, chuckling to himself at Dr. Tannis' absurdity. He just chalked it up to her being clinically insane again. If this Joey turned out to be a fluke then he guessed they would just shoot him and argue amongst themselves. All in all, they would be screwed though.

It was as sudden as anything they had ever experienced and that includes numerous deaths. A sudden sharp panging noise blasted all of their eardums and senses at once. Some of them could only hold on for dear life as the runners turned and spun through the air; the world was immediately black for Maya.

* * *

"It's time for your ascension, my child", Brother Sophis told her as he held her small hands in his own. She and the brotherhood of the Blight were in a shallow pool of sparkling water and were committing her to a ritual, where they cleanse her of the selfishness of youth so that she could give herself fully to the order. Even at that impressionable age, after being raised by the order , she wasn't sure of their intentions. She was after all a small child, small even for her age, and surrounded by a bunch of grown men in knee deep water.

Sophis held out her hand to her in the center of them.

"It's time", he told her. His booming words echoed through the hollow walls of their cathedral, enhanced by the acoustics of the large but shallow pool of sparkling, blue water. "Don't be afraid, my child. A life of blissful empowerment awaits you when you surface. First, you must be cleansed under my guidance. The goddess-mother will reject a child. We must kill the little girl inside you so that you will be reborn a woman."

Partially because she had nowhere else to go, a young Maya timidly waded through the water, her white gown billowing around her. She took his hands as the brotherhood around them took witness.

Brother Sophis placed one palm flat on her lower back and one hand flat on her forehead, leaning her head backwards.

"Do you trust in the brotherhood", he asked her. "In the precursors; that we would sacrifice all for you, including our livelihood and physical bodies?"

She gulped in anticipation before answering "yes".

He nodded.

"I'm going to submerge you now, child", he reminded. "Take a deep breath."

She inhaled a deep breath as the brotherhood began their prayer to the precursors. She never understood their language and they never bothered to teach her, even up to the day she left them behind forever. It haunted her to the day; it sounded like something the human tongue was never meant to speak. It rattled around her head, struggling to get out just as soon as it entered. She jumped up from her sleep some nights because the language followed her into her dreams and turned them into terrors.

Brother Sophis gently pushed her beneath the surface and for a moment, nothing happened.

Twenty seconds passed, yet Sophis still held Maya in the water. She had long expected to resurface by then. Though she had been told she nothing to fear, she began to struggle and thrash against him. Since he was much older and stronger than her, she had no success in escaping his clutch.

An immense pressure began to build in her head and she felt like her head split open. A second later, there was nothing.

* * *

"Maya", she heard an echoing, misty voice call to her.

The young girl's eyes fluttered open at the otherworldly voice. It called her name again.

She was still at the pool, only now it was different. The water took on a glowing, violet glow which looked a lot like what she would later called slag and she wasn't lying in it, she was actually levitating above it. She looked over at the cloaked figure next to her. It wasn't Brother Sophis, but instead a much taller cloaked figure in a robe adorned in glowing Eridian glyphs.

"Who are you", she asked.

"The one who chose you", the decidedly feminine voice answered. "You should be more careful, Maya. Once they're done with you, they will attempt to murder you."

"The order", asked Maya.

"No", said the tall woman as she shook her head and came really close to her face and revealed the unnatural glow of her purple eyes and her sharp, beady pupils. "The Vault Thievesssssss."

* * *

Maya came to and screamed, knocking Axton away from her and pointing her shotgun right at Salvador's chest. Joey's mine blasts had completely destroyed Maya's runner but luckily nobody got seriously hurt. Maya had just been knocked out. The other runner was mostly intact.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa", he shouted, with his hands outstretched. "Calm down now! You got knocked out from the blast! It was a mine! That bastard has them all over the place!"

"Sorry, guys", Rocket-Tooth Joey said over Echo. "Again, really sorry; I'll tell you what, I still have a box of skag pizza from last night. I heat it up and we call it even stevens. Alright? We cool?"

Maya looked past all of them with a blank look on her face. What she was actually looking at was an incredibly tall, cloaked figure in the distance on a rock, staring right at her. The figure was wearing the exact same glowing Eridian cloak she saw in her vision.

"Maya", called Gaige, snapping her fingers in front of Maya's to get her to snap back into it. "Are you okay?"

Maya didn't answer her so Zer0 grabbed her by the head and pried open her eye sockets and looked around for a signs of concussion.

"Ah", she cried out. "What the hell, Zer0!"

He let go of her and held up his right hand.

He raised his right hand and held up two of his fingers.

"How many fingers am I holding up", he asked her.

She looked past him but saw that the cloaked figure was gone. She then looked back at him.

"Three", she answered. "I'm fine, really. I just remembered something…horrible."

She started to push herself to her feet before Axton offered his hand to help her up, which gave her pause. She quietly refused and pushed herself up with her shotgun.

"Maya", Zero said with a red question mark appearing in front of his mask, grabbing her marked arm, "that was wrong."

"I'm fine", she yelled out, yanking away from Zer0 and stumbling away but ultimately keeping her balance. "Somebody tell Joey not to let that happen again!"

"You heard that, idiot", asked Tannis over Echo.

"All of my mines are now disabled", Joey came back with. " I promise."

"_Every_ booby trap you may potentially have", she asked.

There was a brief four second pause before Joey came back.

"Okay", he said, "_Now_, they're all disabled. Come on up."

The Vault Hunters plus Tannis and Claptrap continued up the hill without further incident.

* * *

They came upon a bomb shelter, fortified to possibly withstand a nuke. There were several crude-looking machinegun turrets mounted around his front yard. He had several colorful stalker skins hanging off of a metal zipline extending from the shelter to the cliff face to the left of them. Among them was a wetsuit of sorts, seemingly made from those stalker skins.

"Oh, I've been waiting for this forever", yelled Joey as he approached his blast door entrance. He kicked it open and leapt out towards them. He karate-punched the air to the right and then to the left several times because he was so excited.

Introduction Alert-

_'Rocket-Tooth' Joey_: _**Take everything he says with a grain of salt…and skepticism.**_

"Did you bring it", he said, as he combat-rolled towards them. "Did you bring it?"

He was wearing sleek wetsuit and a black, skull-shaped mask as well as an oxygen tank on his back. Lying across the tank was an explosive harpoon gun.

"You mean this", asked Maya, pulling the still glowing vault key out of her storage deck.

He froze at the sight and approached it cautiously.

"Can I…touch it", he asked.

"No, dude", Maya said, pulling it away, "we don't even know you."

"Doc", Sal said to Tannis, "are you sure about this guy?"

"Alright, Alright", Joey said, backing off. "It's just I've been waiting a long time for this. I guess it can wait. Oh, Peppermint? We had a deal, remember?"

"What is he talking about", wondered Claptrap, whirling around at Tannis.

She closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose between a thumb and forefinger.

"I told the filthy ingrate that if he held up his end of his bargain of leading us to the vault that", she sighed before she could get to the next part, "that he could have me."

"Have you", asked Zer0 as he looked back at Joey.

Joey was lying face first on the ground and raising his hips, repeatedly humping the ground.

"Oh yeah", he grunted, "You ready for _that_, Peppermint Patty?"

"I said _after_ we reach the vault you…you skag-lick", she shouted.

Joey leapt to his feet.

"Wait", he said with a double-take. "You want to do it _in _the vault?! That's soooooo kinky… and that's why I like it!"

Salvador walked right up to Joey after that and swept his legs out from under him with the Bloodthirsty Hercules. He put a spurred boot on his chest and the spun the twirling pincers of the rifle inches from his face.

"I've known you a minute", Sal said, "and already I want to shoot, and or cut your face off. Congratulations, you've survived a minute with me even though I want to kill you. You won't survive one more second if you keep this thing up with Tannis and if you don't take us to the vault right now. Now start walking."

"Okay", he yelled, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'll take you! Just don't stab my face! Please!"

* * *

Needless to say, Joey got to his feet and led the vault hunters around the side of his house to his backyard which doubled as the cliff face and edge of a gulf.

"See, I don't know if Patty told you but my thing is diving", he explained to them. "I love diving; I pay locals from Overlook to assist me with my equipment and hold my aquatic cameras when I leave my subs. if I mutated and suddenly developed gills so that I would have to live in the water I would be so happy. Which reminds me, did you know that Pandora has a fish that crawls on the ocean floor with frilly, human-like limbs and a human-like face as well? I was down there a couple of days ago in my smiley-faced sub when I came upon one of the little critters. If you get right up on them, they'll just keep moseying along on their way. You can get as much video and pics of the guys as you want. Speaking of my smiley sub, there's a funny story that goes along with that. I was dealing with some of the local bandits, buying scrap metal and stuff, building the sub in question you know; when one of them suddenly goes off the handle and threatens me with a skag bone…"

"OMG", yelled Gaige suddenly. "We don't care about any of this! Just start talking about the vault and shut your mouth for rest of our time together! Sal, you're _so_ right! This guy is as annoying as balls!"

Sal gave her a look for that one as she crossed her arms and shook her head.

"So on my last little expedition I saw the damnedest thing", he admitted. "Exactly two kilometers from this cliff and four nautical miles down is a trench. Only as dark as it is we shouldn't have been able to see it. We only saw it because it was glowing purple. We investigated it and…"

He just left his words hanging, which annoyed Sal to no end.

"What", he asked. "What the hell happened?"

"We got completely destroyed", he yelled out. "A tentacles attacked us and breached my hull as if it was just water. Most of my guys drowned. The rest blew up with the sub. Somehow, I was able to swim back to shore. They didn't chase me. They were only protecting that trench."

"Okay", Axton said. "Take us there."

Joey shook his head.

"Nuh uh", was his simple response. "You'll be able to find it with no problem. It glows all of the time."

He turned and pointed a ways out to the water.

"It's about there and just dive down", he said. "The only reason you can't see it now is because the sun's out. It's glowing _all_ the time. You can see it clearly at night. It's like something is daring somebody to come for it, so those tentacles can rip them apart. If you really want to die, then knock yourselves out. I'm never going back there. I can give you some oxygen tanks and swimsuits but I'm not going. You see that?"

He gestured to a small, beat-up bathysphere, lifted on his pulley system attached to the cliff.

"That is my only machine now", he said. "I had three subs. Three. I lost them all to that monster. I'm sick of it. Do you know how much money it costs to build a sub? Even a cheap one? **** monsters, for real man."

"I feel for you, man", Axton said. "I really do, but you're taking us down there whether you want to or not."

"Those subs were precious to me", Joey said. "They were all I had. They were just like my-"

"Kids", interjected Gaige.

"my genitalia", Joey finished.

"Oh", said Gaige, stopping in her tracks. "You just went in a direction I wasn't really expecting. I didn't think-"

"One was like the left nut", he looked down at his groin and used his hands to illustrate this. "One was like the right nut…and the last one was like my johnny boy. All gone! Stalkers made me an eunuch!"

"God, this is getting pathetic", commented Tannis, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"There is no god", shrieked Joey as he fell to his knees, crying. Claptrap went to him and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. He was doing it so hard, he almost pushed Joey facefirst into the ground.

"Ow", muttered Joey.

* * *

Maya wasn't paying attention to any of this. She was standing on the cliff and feeling the wind run against her skin and her hair. She looked out towards the area Joey had pointed out to her. It was there. She could feel it. It _was_ daring her to come for it. She always did like challenges. She took out the beacon that Blake had given her. It was a Hyperion-yellow cylinder-shaped device that was segmented in the middle. He had instructed her to use it in water. She pulled it in two directions, extending it and activating the now-beeping beacon light on the tip. She then flung it high in the air towards the ocean. It got some good distance on it and she watched the blinking light as the beacon floated there, bobbing up and down there for a while. It did absolutely nothing.

"That son of a bitch", she muttered, thinking of Blake.

Suddenly, a moonshot blitz rained down from Hyperion's infamous H-shaped satellite directly into the water where Maya threw the beacon. Gushing waves of evaporating mist splashed over her, forced up from the high impact and heat of the moonshot. She shielded her eyes against it, eager to see Blake's "gift". When the mist finally died down, she was pleasantly surprised.

It was a 100 meter-long, state-of the-art yellow Hyperion Submarine. Like almost every other sub she had ever seen illustrations of, it was bullet-like in shape and capped on top with a hatch and several submersible radar antennas and scopes.

"Whoa", said Salvador with a gaping jaw.

"Get ready", said Maya to Joey. "You're taking us down there. _Now_."

* * *

The group used a specialized U-Change station that Joey had access to behind his shelter in order to change into wetsuits. It was designed to digistruct a wetsuit for anybody's shape and body type. Gaige laughed at Salvador; he looked so awkward in his. Zer0 looked just like he always did.

Joey wheeled out a cart and handed them all lights and oxygen tanks.

"Reserves", he explained, "from my own team. You should all have mostly full tanks; the meters on your wrists have a circular bar that shows you your oxygen level as well as your pressure levels."

Zer0 strapped the oxygen tank on his shoulder with came with a wrist attachment that automatically latched around his right wrist. It displayed his oxygen bar and it wasn't exactly full but was more than three quarters full.

"Sorry", he said, "I don't have any aquatic weapons besides trusty Moby here."

He gestured over his shouder to his explosive harpoon gun.

"Hopefully Hyperion sprung for some torpedoes", he said.

The first step was of course to actually leap into the water to swim to the submarine. It was a good fifty-foot drop with some rocks directly below them. They would all have to leap _out_ in order to clear them. Quite daunting; Gaige actually felt a twinge of nervousness for the first time in a long time. Salvador was scared out of his mind and was happy none of them could see it.

"You guys ready for this", asked Axton. Maya had already leapt from the cliff before Axton even finished the sentence. "Maya", he yelled out in actual concern. There was no need for concern however, as Maya had already leapt well clear of the rocks below. A second later, she splashed into the bay below.

After dipping momentarily, she swam back to the surface in joyous laughter. The Hunters had never seen her so happy and were a bit taken aback at first. She waded there for a while.

"What are you guys waiting for", she shouted. "The water feels great!"

"I guess there's no turning back", said Axton to the others with a shrug.

"Are you kidding me", asked Tannis.

Axton was the next to lunge after Maya to the water below. Not to be outdone in insanity, Tannis lamented everybody's expectations of her. It was already a shock that she wasn't the first to jump thirty feet from the cliff. Now everybody's opinion of her was swiftly falling like Hyperion's stocks since Handsome Jack's death.

"Sometimes I hate my predicament", said Tannis before she too leapt to what she to what she temporarily wanted to be her death.

She plunged into the water and immediately swam to the surface in a frenzy.

She followed Axton and Maya to Hyperion's sub; their actions daring the others to follow them.

"Mechromancer", whined Claptrap to Gaige, "besides stairs, water is my mortal enemy! The one I have yet to overcome! How will I partake in the vault's discovery with this horrible disease! How, Mechomancer? Tell me, please!"

Claptrap was so serious that he actually got on his frontside and clasped his little robot hands together to beg of Gaige for the opportunity to see the vault.

"CP, CP", Gaige said, lifting Claptrap up to her face. He was actually heavy but her robotic arm could more than carry the weight. "I armed you with a deterrent field that repels dust particles. You can fly! The water won't touch you. Just make sure you stay on the sub and don't turn off that shielding over the water and you should be fine!"

"Oh yeah", he said as Gaige released him so that he could levitate himself in mid-air before he hit the ground. He shouted "ta-da" and raised his segmented robot arms to the sky to go along with his little trick.

Gaige was the next to take the dive, milking it for all it was worth, stretching out her arms like she was some kind of Olympic-level diver. In her defense, she pulled her limbs into her body in such a way that she sunk to the bay in a swift, elegant way.

Claptrap was right after her, slowly descending in his energy bubble towards the open hatch on the sub. He was quite happy with his situation, to say the least.

"Stairs can no longer stop me", he shouted as he made his descent. "Now water is powerless to stop me! Can you say 'UNSTOPPABLE'! Tremble before the one that is CLAPTRAP! Muhahahahahahaha!"

Maya had already climbed onto the sub and helped Axton up the ladder, and the two both scooped up Tannis from the bay.

Zer0 helped climbed the ladder onto the sub right after Axton and walked past them. Maya hadn't even realized that he had dived.

Without warning, Joey leapt from the cliff as well and began his swim to the sub.

The others looked up and realized that Salvador was the only one who hadn't yet taken the plunge.

"Dude", Axton yelled up with his arms outstretched, "what's the hold up?"

"Come on, Sal", shouted Gaige. "We have to go!"

"Sure thing", said Sal, closing his eyes at the top of the cliff.

"What", called back Gaige. "I didn't hear you!"

Sal was shaking a bit now. He didn't like this at all.

* * *

"Eat dirt, grinder", shouted a young Nine-Toes at his next little victim of the day. Even back then, he was a bit sadistic and kept a gang of junior psychopaths under his thumb. They ran around the arid hills and crannies of Ovejas, throwing rocks at skags and torturing every parentless child they could get their hands on. That day they found a seven-year old boy playing in the dirt right outside the town gate. Now they were trying to make this poor kid eat the dirt.

"Your mouth isn't open, grinder", Nine-Toes shouted as he rubbed the sobbing little boy's face around in the dust. Nine-Toe's gang of followers circled the two like hyenas, cackling and cheering on their leader.

"Leave him alone", they heard somebody shout from behind and above them. They turned in time to see a young Salvador, standing on the entrance gate above them. Even back then, the pudgy little pre-teen had a Mohawk haircut. Although the steroids would eventually did stunt his growth, his height at the time proved that he wouldn't have grown very tall anyway. He was a stumpy, pudgy four feet tall and some change and a target for Nine-Toes' unwanted attention. It just happened that at the moment and time, he really wanted it.

"Oh look, boys", jeered Nine-Toes. "It's fatboy Salvadora playing hero again! You keep sticking your nose in my business fatboy, I might cut it off!"

This was answered with a tiny ball of metal spikes that hit Nine-Toes square in the forehead, knocking him flat on his back and busting him wide open. Salvador used old magnets to piece together balls of as much scrap as he could put together and used it as slingshot ammo.

"More where that came from, putos", young Salvador yelled out as he reloaded his slingshot and rained down more spikes on them in rapid succession.

The young gang first tried to shield themselves as a first instinct but seeing as how Salvador's attack was both scarring and incredibly painful, they eventually hightailed and left their victim alone in the dust. Salvador sent a few more shots after them for good measure. It was only after a minute when he was sure they weren't lurking around that he made the descent down to check on the boy. It was one of his first moments doing the 'right' thing and he would remember it forever.

"Are you okay", Salvador asked as he grabbed the boy by the shoulder and lifted him up. He wiped the dust off of his body and face. The boy looked up at him and his eyes went really wide. In one swift movement, he was up and running in the opposite direction. Sal was very confused, to say the least and happened to turn around.

All he saw was an incoming object like a rock and felt a second of sharp pain before everything went black.

* * *

When he came to, Nine-Toe's boys were holding him up by his arms and Nine-Toes was slapping him hard across the face. They were big into humiliation. That was probably why Nine-Toes had stripped Salvador completely naked and got as many of the kids from town to watch as he made him sorry for not minding his business.

"Sweet, you're awake", Nine-Toes shouted.

The boys were standing on the edge of an elevated boardwalk in their town, leading into a giant trough of sorts. It was about twenty feet high on both sides and half-full of water. It was the town's gathered water supply. Nine-Toes kneeled down and peered into it.

"Sally", he said, looking back at Salvador struggling against his boys, "you're sweating white stuff. Are you thirsty? Do you want a drink? Does fatty look like he wants a drink?"

Some of the gathered kids below laughed and cheered at this. Some wanted them to leave Sal alone but did nothing to help.

Salvador let off a string of curses in Truxican.

"I've always wondered if Truxicans could swim", said Nine-Toes, who stood up and pointed down signaling them to fling Salvador into the town's only water supply. "Dump the skaglick!"

With a large splash, Salvador was sent into the trough for Nine-Toes' amusement.

"This is me taking it easy on you, 'hero'", he assured Sal. "I could have cut pieces off of you and fed you to my skags! Would you have liked that one? Huh?"

They stopped to observe Salvador flapping his arms around wildly and taking huge gulps, all around just trying his damnedest to stay afloat but failing miserably.

"Look at that, Nine", observed one of the guys.

"Oh crap", he said, chuckling and kneeling down to peer at him. "I guess Truxicans really _can't _swim! Ha ha ha!"

* * *

The Vault Hunters watched as Salvador leapt from the Cliffside, flailing wildly. That was more or less how they expected him to look in the air. He crashed into the water face first, something that looked like it hurt to Axton. Sal dipped down for a second, before swimming and gulping loudly for air. He was struggling really hard to stay above the water, swinging his arms and legs hectically and dipping below the surface way too much for the others' liking. He never did learn how to swim.

"Oh crap", shouted Maya when she realized that Salvador was drowning. Not even a second later, Axton dived into the water after him. In a few seconds, Axton swam over to the spot where Sal crashed and dived down for him. Salvador was sinking fast but Axton was a pretty good swimmer and went down for him. A minute later, Axton was dragging Sal's limp body as he paddled back to the sub to the others.

* * *

Sal came to coughing up the water in his lungs and surrounded by Maya, Axton and Zer0. He sat on a up on the sub exterior and leaned up right into Maya's chest almost.

"Thank God you're alright", she sighed. "We thought we were gonna lose you."

"Dude", Axton said, "Why didn't you tell us you can't swim?"

"Never mind that, pendejo", Salvador snapped and gestured Axton to come closer with a finger. "Come here."

Maya stood up and moved out of the way and allowed Axton to kneel closer to Salvador.

"Did Maya perform mouth to mouth on me", Sal whispered into Axton's ear.

"Nah, man", Axton whispered back. "All she did was pump your chest and her little res thing and you were back."

"Dammit", whispered Sal. He had forgotten about her res powers.

"I know", Axton said, offering his hand to help Sal up. He pulled Sal to his feet. "Guess what, buddy? We're on the sub and we're almost to the vault."

* * *

Axton led Sal, Maya and Zer0 through the cramped hallways towards the control room where Joe was steering the ship. They all had to duck a bit to get through the hallway except for Salvador, who just walked straight. The group stopped when the wall shutters in front of them next began to elevate to reveal the entire wall was a window. It wasn't glass, which would burst at certain depths, but a transparent metal called Hyperium. It was like looking at an aquarium, only the depths they were at was pretty dark. They were looking a dark rocky mass except for the large circular plate engraved with the oh-so-familiar vault symbol. The only way they could see this was because there was a telltale purple light bleeding through the edges of the plate as if there was a mass of eridium.

"So there's our vault", Sal said. "It doesn't look like much. So, would you guys be pissed if it turned out to be loot?"

"You know, I haven't thought of that", Axton admitted. "I think I would."

"No", Maya said, shaking her head. "It's more than that. It has to be. I wouldn't be feeling the things I feel if it was just that."

"What do you feel", wondered Zer0.

"It…it's not something I could put into words", she admitted, sounding as if she was actually ashamed. "I wish I could, but I just can't. Whatever this is, it's _big_. Guys, after we opened The Warrior's vault, it changed things. I'm much more attuned to eridium, I can feel other sirens _planets _away, and my powers have even changed. Sometimes, I think I may be stronger than even Lilith and it's _scary_. What if I lose control…what if…"

"What if nothing", Salvador cut in. "You think I'm just gonna let you go Dark Phoenix on me? Ha! I'll shoot you down before you get the chance."

Maya smiled at this. This was Salvador's version of a joke. As horrible and mostly serious as it was, Maya felt relieved that he would do what he needed to do if she got out of hand.

"Yeah right, little man", she ribbed back. "Now that I know all have to do is drown you in a gallon of water, you wouldn't stand a chance."

They shared a chuckle at that.

"Seriously though, Maya", said Axton. "You will never have to deal with any threat alone. You can be damn sure of that. Every time you feel yourself slipping, every time you're in trouble; I'll be there. I mean _we'll_ be there."

Like it was a secret that Axton had the hots for Maya; both Zer0 and Salvador both snickered at the thought that Axton didn't know that they knew he's been wanting to get with her from the first time they all met on the train to the Windshear Wastes.

"OK, guys", called Joey over the intercom system. "It's time for you guys to come to the Control slash Surveillance Room so you can see why getting into this vault is impossible."

They couldn't see the vault opening anymore because Joey turned the sub so that he was facing it.

* * *

Gaige, Tannis and Claptrap were already in Joey's cramped control room. The bow of the ship was right in his lap as well as monitors linked to cameras in every compartment of the ship and the scope outside.

"You're not the type to push all kinds of buttons and switches are you", Joey asked Gaige over his shoulder.

"What", she protested. "Why are you asking me for?"

"Maybe because you're a child", answered Tannis pointedly.

Gaige gasped.

"I'll have you know that I'm eighteen", Gaige snapped back. "That's considered an adult practically everywhere in the galaxy! Also, I'm a genius! We don't do retarded things like 'push' buttons or 'flip' switches. Not unless I know it's going to do something cool!"

"A genius", mocked Tannis with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "I have doctorate in Archaeology and Gaius Galaxy History. I have mastered ten different languages, am fluent in twenty more, and have even made four of my own. Ug' Cluck Ha'um! Nobody else in the universe even knows what that means! I was the first person in to discover every newly discovered vault in four hundred years and I discovered four! Every other living being have discovered none! Also, you have a robot arm! Only an imbecile would cut off their own arm. That or a robot; robots are not geniuses! Just look at Claptrap."

Claptrap was ignoring the two of them, studying the console behind them and to the right. It had one big blue button that said 'Touch Me. You Die. No Joke'. He was seriously considering touching it. It was clearly talking to humans.

"With a single key phrase I can have Claptrap or DT come over to your apartment and do anything to you I want", Gaige said to Tannis solemnly. "You ever had a robot in your bed?"

Tannis gave Gaige a horrified look. Gaige nodded and confirmed her horror.

"Yeah", Gaige said with a nod. "Checkmate, bitch."

Not a moment too soon, the others ducked into the cramped room and crowded around Joey's center console. They could clearly see the closed Vault hatch, still glowing around the edges and etched with the usual Vault symbol.

"Let's get in there", ordered Axton. "Come on!"

"Alright", sighed Joey. "It's our watery grave. I just want you guys to know that even though I've only known you all for a short period of time that I will cherish these…"

"If you don't get us into that vault in the next minute", said Maya as she leaned to whisper in his ear, "I will splatter your brains all over this room. I have two geniuses with me. I'm sure between the two of them and my siren powers, we can get in there without you. Now, drive."

She pushed him roughly from behind. She was tired of playing around; she _had _to see this vault.

Motivated, Joey propelled the sub towards the Vault opening and it slid downwards immediately to reveal a perfectly carved circular opening of darkness. A second later, two craggy, hardened tentacles shot out from its depths and coiled around the ship several times over. The suddenness of the attack made everybody jump.

"See what I mean", Joey reasoned casually. "I've never been close enough for them to touch me but this is what I talking about."

The entire room started flashing a slow red and an alarm sounded.

"This is not a test", an automated voice warned over the intercom. "Exceeding pressure limits. Exceeding pressure limits. Hull breach is imminent."

"Well, thank you for that", shouted Joey.

"Doesn't this thing have weapons", Sal asked. "Shoot it! Cut it, man! Do something!"

"Hey, Vault Hunters", yelled a seriously irritated voice over their Echo, "guess what?"

They all let out a collective groan and carried simultaneous thoughts of despair. It was none other than the team mother, Lilith. She was likely not pleased.

"%#&!", shouted Maya in frustration, rubbing her forehead.

"I woke up to quite a lot commotion this morning", she said. "See, there was a lot of gunfire and screaming and whatnot. Oh, there was also a bunch of rat bodies strewn around the Fast Travel Station. The biggest surprise though was the Vault Key. See, it isn't here anymore. You wouldn't know something about that, would you guys?"

"Don't worry, Lilith", Maya piped up. "We have the key."

* * *

Meanwhile, the alarms intensified and the tentacles began to pull the sub towards the vault opening.

"What the hell, dude", Axton yelled at Joey. "Shoot it!"

"I can't", Joey yelled back. "Not when we're entrapped like this! We'll all die!"

"We're all gonna die anyway if you let it do what it wants", shouted Ax.

* * *

"Oh goodie", said Lilith to Maya. "Now, bring the key back to me and tell me exactly what the hell happened."

"That's not going to happen, Lil", Maya answered. "I need the key."

"I'll bite", Lilith said with a sigh. "Why do you think you need the key, Maya?"

"Because I found a new vault, Lil", Maya answered back. "The key draws me to it. The key is what is going to open it and validate everything I've fought for."

"Taking down Hyperion wasn't enough", Lilith asked.

"See, this is why I could never tell you about the vault", Maya said. "You're so shortsighted. All you've ever done is hold me back."

"Whoa, whoa", Lilith said. "Holding you back? Where is this coming from?"

* * *

The tentacles were bringing the ship into the depths of the vault with a rapidness that was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying to the vault hunters. They could all hear the creaks and snaps of the breaking metal from the ship's hull. They could hear hissing from busted pipes and water blasting through the hallways, stopped by emergency containment doors. The Vault Hunters were being flung around the room like ragdolls.

"Maya", Lilith shouted. "Answer me-"

Maya's Echo cut out suddenly and it was signaled that they were cut off from the surface at large.

"Oh crap", wailed Claptrap. "We're all gonna die!"

Claptrap was flung into the ceiling and bounced over everybody's heads, smashing head-on into the controls in front of Joey. Sparks and chunks of metal flew in all directions.

"You idiot", shouted Joey. "I would dismantle you if we weren't already doooooomed!"

"I'm soooooryyyy scary skull-faced maaaaan", answered Claptrap as they descended into the pitch black depths beneath the vault entrance.

That was exactly what happened. Whatever the tentacles were attached to dragged the Vault Hunters right into the Vault entrance and then straight down into a hidden cavern that went well below the ocean floor.

Salvador had already thrown up. His world was getting very fuzzy and he knew he was on the verge of passing out. In fact, the only one who was completely calm was Zer0. The man simply went limp and let the ship take his body wherever it wanted him to go. Whatever his fate, he accepted it. Very few had seen and done the things he had; so, he was content.

The monster pulled them in another complete direction; upwards, this time. In another few seconds, they stopped. The end of their ascent was signaled by the sound of whooshing water. None of them were conscious to know it.

* * *

Maya didn't know how long she was out, but when she came to the world was silent to her for the first time in weeks. The sub's alarm system was on permanent loop. There was no sound but the entire interior alternated between pitch black and deep red lighting. She looked around and saw her friends strewn across the cramped room; some of them were piled on top of each other. Some of them could even be dead, yet all she could think of was that she needed to get out.

She couldn't count how many times she bumped her head or other body parts on the way to the surface hatch. She finally found the ladder and ascended to the hatch itself and met the valve. It took a bit of effort but she quickly loosened the valve and spun it open. Giddy as a little girl getting a pony for Christmas, she climbed to the top of the sub and stood up to get a look at this newly discovered vault.

The submarine had ascended into a pool surrounded by a vast cave that was the vault. Something was off to her, though. The walls and ceiling didn't quite look right. There were strange, jagged streaks running along the walls and ceiling; they looked somewhat like veins. The ceiling actually seemed to be _moving_; no, it was _heaving_. She could also hear loud snorting and wheezing. In the distance, there were two holes in the wall shielded by semi-transparent energy fields. Within the field, she could see something shift around. She continued to look around at the shaking walls and recognized the loud noises for what they were. There was a glowing Vault Symbol directly above her head.

"Wait a sec", she murmured to herself, "is this Vault alive?"


	12. Episode 5, Part 1

"They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others." –Joseph Conrad, _Heart of Darkness_.

* * *

"…I mean…who are you? Do _you_ even know?"- ?

* * *

Marcus finished cleaning one of his Jakobs revolvers and put it back on the shelf. He looked over at his orphans, single-mindedly doing the chores he'd assigned to them and felt a sudden twinge in his black heart. He would never admit it to anyone, (without changing his mind and killing them afterwards) but he did care for them. They had been working very hard and didn't complain too much anymore. He figured it was time for a reward. He walked over to his rocking chair and took a seat.

"Hey, kids", Marcus shouted to his 'apprentices', "put down your chores! It's story time!"

"Yaaaaay", they shouted as they put down their weapons and came running to Marcus' chair, sitting around him on their knees, whispering excitement amongst themselves like yelping little puppies.

He chuckled at this.

"Okay, settle down", he said. "Settle down. I mean it. Shut the hell up!"

They finally did, freezing in their tracks and staring up at him uneasily. He chuckled again to break the ice.

"Now, then", he began, "if I remember correctly, our Vault Hunters had just made it to the deep sea vault. If you couldn't tell, things were different this time around…"

"Uuuummm, Marcus", called one of the orphans cautiously as he raised his hand. "Isn't the story over? I mean, they already found the vault. Story's over, right?"

Marcus chuckled and waved the little boy towards him with an index finger. The boy gingerly came closer. Marcus leaned down to his eye level.

"No", he screamed so loud in the boy's face that the boy was startled into rolling backwards.

"This vault wasn't like the others", he continued. "Getting there is fine and all but getting there without unlocking it makes it useless. There was still something for them to do."

"What did they have to do", asked another orphan.

"That's the question, isn't it", he said, leaning back clearly happy with himself. "As you tell, things are a bit more …serious now. Things will start getting both better _and_ worse for our Vault Hunters. You could even say…things just got real…."

* * *

"Yep", Joey groaned as he moved from his upside down position, "this is my luck nowadays. I get the chance to operate a state-of-the-art ship and it's immediately torn to shreds."

His movement stirred the others from their states of unconsciousness. Zer0 was already sitting up in a cross-legged position, just surveying the others and making sure they were still alive. It was rare for the assassin to get excited and though he would like to pretend nobody else knew this, he gets really excited at the thought of opening a new vault. Like as happy as a six-year old opening a Christmas present. The truth was, all of the other Vault Hunters knew this. In fact, Axton was watching Zer0 closely for any sign of this. So far, there was nothing but it would come.

The sub was both badly damaged and surprisingly intact all at the same time. The controls were completely screwed and the exterior was really banged up. The sonar and satellite receivers, as well as scopes were completely gone, leaving it useless for navigation and submersion as a whole. However, the halls weren't flooded all that much, the living quarters and pressure systems were largely untouched and the Vault Hunters themselves weren't really hurt.

"I don't believe in luck", admitted Zer0.

"I do", answered Ax, as he sat up. "With how many scrapes we barely made it out of, I don't know how you can say that."

"There's no way I'm gonna die before I see this vault", said Salvador, pushing himself up to his feet and moving for the exit. He was intending to see where the hell they were.

"Don't open the hatch, man", called Joey. "I have no idea if we're still submerged or not!"

* * *

Maya hopped down from the sub hatch into the deep cave pool and swam towards the rocky edge of the cavernous ridge. There was a small climb to pull herself up onto the ledge. She then rolled over it to her feet. The ceiling was steadily falling and rising; otherwise it appeared like a high deep sea cavern with hundreds of tiny luminescent bugs flying around randomly and stalactite on the walls. She was on a path that winded around the corner to the left and elevated upwards like a set of stairs. She followed this path and came upon two twenty foot tall and wide cut-out hallways directly to the right. They were covered with some strange kind of blue energy field. It was something weird and somewhat expected with a vault. To her left was a dark, open chamber of some sort.

She became transfixed on the energy fields first and approached the two of them. This was active Eridian technology; the first that she's seen that wasn't supercharged by a Vault key and she was curious as to why it was on. She approached it with an open source of her Siren lifeforce in her right hand and palmed the doorway on the right. It felt harder than any surface she had ever felt; there was absolutely no give at all. In fact, it hurt a bit when she pushed. She pulled away and walked towards the open doorway.

Immediately after stepping inside, a purple ray emanated from the ground in the center of the room, before changing colors and illuminating the entire room. The light was an orb surrounded by a cluster of Eridian crystals. The entire room looked like some rocky command center of sorts. The room was circular and adorned with the Eridian language. She realized that there was rectangular viewing port looking out over the pool and the sub, like a bomb shelter of some kind. Right in front it was a pulpit with a port in the the center. She approached this and watched as Salvador opened the sub hatch and looked around.

"Whoa", he said, noticing the rising and falling ceiling and the lit underwater cave. Maya waved at him and called his name to get his attention.

"I'm not swimming over there", he shouted.

"Come on", she yelled. "It's not that far!"

He cursed in Truxican and climbed out of the hatch and stepped out onto the roof of the sub. He tip-toed and swayed, afraid of falling into the pool. He looked like a midget surfer.

"Easy", she yelled out, teasing.

"Shut up", he yelled back, causing her to giggle. "So, what the hell yanked us anyway?"

She simply shrugged and looked down at the pulpit port.

Remembering suddenly, she took out her charged vault key. Unfortunately, the vault key had was triangular prism-shaped while this slot looked like it was built for a cylinder. She immediately began to panic internally. Another Vault key? This one didn't even fit.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to shake and the very walls began to part to her right. She looked over and realized the walls were cracking to reveal yet another similar room to the one she was standing in: A crude, circular room with a pit of Eridian crystals surrounding an illuminated gem that looked out over the pool and their submarine. She entered it and realized it there was a door on the right side of the room that led to yet another chamber. There were three conjoined stone chamber rooms with a gem in the center, a cluster of crystals, and a view port looking out over the pool. What was the purpose of this vault?

"You bitch", said Tannis as she approached Maya from behind, startling her. "Are you trying to steal the discovery for yourself?"

Gaige, Zer0, Joey, and Claptrap were behind her. Maya looked over at the pool and saw Axton struggling to pull Salvador through the water towards the rock edge. Salvador was cursing him out mercilessly in Truxican.

"It's pretty cool in here", Gaige said, looking around. "I was expecting more, but…"

Maya had already left them behind to go to the next room. Tannis moved ahead of her and reached into her bag, pulling out her texts and glyphs. She went to center of the room and laid her texts down next the crystals and Eridian glyphs.

"Yes", she muttered. "Just like I thought."

Zer0 approached walked around the chambers in a sort of serene daze, humming to himself. Maya approached Tannis.

"What do you know, Doc", she asked. "What is this place?"

"Isn't it obvious", asked Tannis annoyed. "I mean, look around. Three chambers, each overlooking the exact same spot; three pulpits with slots for three keys; I first thought it was weird for Pandora to see rain for the first time in centuries. _Several _times over; then I started reading the texts. The Eridians were more advanced than even I gave them credit for. The entire Eridian archaeology community, by which I mean me, has insisted on planting the Eridians on this planet but evidence has shown us that there are vaults on least several planets. Now, how do you transport an entire civilization, construction team, beasts, whatever goes into building a vault from one planet to another?"

"Spaceships, duh", answered Maya dully.

"Fine, fine", nodded Tannis. "Okay, you've seen all types of Eridian artifacts: gems, weapons, metals, vaults, guardians but let me ask you this; have you ever seen an Eridian spaceship?"

"Ummmm", Maya struggled to answer.

"Even a picture of one", Tannis asked.

Maya gave Tannis a look.

"Okay, now you're making me feel stupid", she said. "Will you just make your point?"

Tannis took out a metal plate out from her pack. She pushed her index finger in the center and a faint digital projection appeared just above it. It was a smooth, torpedo-like shape without any edges of any kind. There was a large port in the back, likely an exhaust for some kind of energy. It looked different than anything a human would build but she could definitely recognize it as a spaceship.

"That is an Eridian spaceship", Tannis said. "Most technology we find is relatively new. This is ancient. Fifty thousand years roughly. This was one of the last models."

"Where did you find this", asked Maya.

Tannis shrugged.

"I discovered a lot when I was out on my own", she explained, "before Handsome Jack caught up with me. Who knows what else I might've discovered had Roland not strong-armed me to move to Sanctuary."

Maya nodded, accepting this answer.

"Anyways, I thought the Eridians disappeared around five thousand years ago", Maya said. "That's a long time to go with the same model spacecraft."

"That's right", Tannis said. "but what I've found and read suggests that Eridians eventually found no further use for flight travel at all. Technologically, they evolved past it."

"Evolved past flight", repeated Maya.

"Yes", Tannis said. "The Eridians established stations on every one of their occupied planets. Planets they could easily fast travel between, much like us, only on a much larger scale."

"So you're saying this vault is a gateway to another planet", Maya asked, wide-eyed.

Tannis looked through the view port over the pool.

"I would imagine each of these chambers opens to a different planet and that pool becomes the portal", Tannis said. "We could fast travel to three different planets from this very room. Three different vaults. When the doors open, this causes a shift in the planet's gravity field which affects the weather as well."

Maya sat back in shock. Axton whistled, drawing their attention. He was standing in the corner with Salvador. Both of them were soaking wet but were listening attentively.

"So I guess we won't be needing a ship after all", said Salvador. That wonder they thought they would lose after defeating the Warrior came rushing back at once.

* * *

Brick paced on the command deck of his beloved Ultimate Badass Buzzard with an Echo device in his hand. His plan to unite the bandit hordes under his rule was just in its beginning stages and like all of Brick's challenges, he wanted to do it in the most dominating way possible. He wanted to start off with the Sawteeth, his most vicious rivals. Helios had loaned him their patented Peacekeeper aircraft and pilots for the attack on the Sawteeth stronghold, which they were rapidly approaching by the second.

"Two kilometers until arrival, king", stated the navigating pilot to Brick.

"Cool", he said. "Remember to take out those turrets first. They're bound to be rockets."

"Got ya, king", he responded.

The Sawteeth were fully expecting an aerial assault from Brick's Slabs. What they didn't expect was that Adam had given Brick command of a few of his Peacekeepers, Helios advanced combat aircraft. He had already demanded that Sawbone hand over his allegiance and territories over to Brick. Sawbone, being Mortar's successor as king of the Sawtooth faction of Pandoran bandits.

The Sawteeth were different from other bandit clans such as the Bloodshots and the Slabs. While both of those clans had arms-reach access to iron and Eridian metal factories and were well-supplied as a result, the Sawteeth were formidable simply for the location of their stronghold.

Their territory was a zig-zag of valleys and canyons that were nearly impossible to navigate without getting ambushed or broken in two. Troops on the ground would also have to deal with the rampant thresher population, who were much stronger here than most other areas because of the environment. This was a key reason why Hyperion hit the Bloodshots and the Slabs so hard during their war but didn't dare touch the Sawteeth.

"I know my slabs know this", Brick said over Echo, "so this goes for those Helios Peacekeepers: you will listen to me. Do not make a move or even a damn barrel roll unless I say so. This is _my_ attack. That's what Blitzfield and me agreed on. Got it?"

"Read you loud and clear, _king_", Brick heard one of the Helios pilots call in over his echo.

"Good", Brick answered, satisfied.

"King", said Brick's navigator again, "we should be entering Sawtooth Cauldron in ten seconds."

"Get ready to unleash hell on these Sawtooth bastards", ordered Brick.

"Fire on my command", he ordered through Echo.

"I'm hearing a lot of activity coming from up ahead, king", said one of his other pilots. "I think I see fire."

When Brick's fleet veered low into the Cauldron, they could see why. A fleet of Helios Peacekeepers were already there, flying low and tearing through the cauldron with photon bombs and missiles. Sawtooth machinery, body parts and even pieces of the rocky environment was flying everywhere. Brick was absolutely pissed.

"What the hell is this", Brick yelled at his Peacekeepers over echo. "You know anything about this?"

"We're as shocked as you are", one of the Peacekeeper pilots came back.

"Bull$#&%", shouted Brick.

"We swear", the pilot pleaded.

"Get down there", ordered Brick to his Ultimate Badass Buzzard pilots, "before they tear everything apart!"

* * *

Joey approached the shielded cave entrances next to the Vault Chambers and pressed on the barriers.

"Wow", he exclaimed, "these are more solid than my abs."

The was rough breathing coming from the one on the left and he could hear a gust of wind as a result. Whatever it was, it was huge.

"Spooky", he commented. "What do you think is in there?"

"Another challenge", said Zer0, who walked up next to him. He really hoped that whenever they unlocked the portals that whatever was held within the caves would be released.

"So when are we going to use _our_ key", asked Gaige impatiently, "or was that a waste?"

"Each of these chambers have a different slot for three different keys", Maya said, walking to the stone pulpit in front of the view port. "If we want to open the portals, we have to find the other two keys wherever they are."

Most of the group was currently in the second chamber which had a pulpit that had triangular prism-shaped slot, perfect for the key they got from the Warrior's vault.

"Will using our key by itself do something cool", asked Gaige.

"I have no idea", answered Maya as she brought their key down to the slot. "Only one way to find out."

Before even touching the port, a connecting ray of Eridium energy passed between their key and the pulpit. Maya could physically feel the key being drawn in, like two attractive forces. This was _right_. When she inserted the key, the entire pulpit began to glow purple and the entire chamber began to rumble and shake beneath the Vault Hunter's feet. In fact the entire room started to spin clockwise as if on a dial or gear of some sort.

"Maya", Salvador yelled as he struggled to maintain his balance, "Something's wrong!"

He eventually lost it and fell on his hands and knees. When he looked up, he watched as the crystals in the center of the room began to shake violently on their accord before bursting into pieces one by one. He rolled on his back and covered his eyes. When they were all destroyed, something strange happened. Sparks shot up from the chamber's epicenter and lingered in mid-air, charging visibly through some invisible object proving to everybody in the room that this event was either supernatural or E-tech related.

Everybody was transfixed on this, providing a reason why nobody saw an incredibly long, thick tentacle with suckers and all extend from the deaths of the right shielded cave entrance behind Joey. It penetrated the seemingly solid energy field as if it weren't even there and slowed to a crawl behind Joey, careful to not alert anybody. Joey could see the building energy burst from where he was and was very enthralled by it.

Suddenly he felt something hard on the right side of his ribs right before it wrapped itself completely two times over. He lost all of his breath instantly and because of his mask, he had even less air to suck in. He could feel it crushing his ribcage inwards into his body, threatening to shatter and crush his entire midsection with him helpless to stop it. Although the tentacle moved as fluidly as flesh, it felt harder than most rocks and made the situation even more terrifying. Joey struggled against the tentacle fruitlessly with his and let out strangled groan in strain.

The others turned around at the noise and saw a shiny, rocky tentacle lift Joey twenty feet up in the air.

"Crap", yelled out Salvador as he and the others hurried over, drawing their go-to weapons.

Zer0 unleashed on the tentacle with his bee-assisted, Double-Penetrating Unkempt Harold revolver; Salvador was firing their newly acquired Automatic Guyver shotgun; Gaige was using the Bloodthirsty Hercules rifle; Maya was using the Hellfire SMG; Axton was a slag-elemental Pertinent Norfleet rocket launcher.

After fighting together for so long, they had all developed a sort of hive mind in battle. Even if they didn't discuss strategy before heading into battle, so they all naturally aimed towards the base of the tentacle that was protruding from the energy barrier. They heard terrible roar from above them in response. Was it possible that this tentacle was actually a part of the ceiling?

Claptrap, though somewhat frightened, was also curious so he ventured over to the energy doorway and pushed against it. It was still more solid than any rock or metal he had ever felt. Yet, here was this tentacle bypassing it like it didn't exist. He backed away from it and performed coding scan with his singular eye so he could see exactly how the door was made, what was powering it possibly, just anything. What came back perplexed him. Instead of actual code like his usual scans, the scan brought back a bunch of Eridian characters. So much, in fact that he was almost instantly overloaded and his systems crashed.

"OoooOooooh", he whined as he fell flat on his back and died down.

Their fire was having absolutely zero effect on the tentacle and it responded violently. It raised Joey a few feet and slammed him backward into the field. While the tentacle bypassed the barrier like nothing, Joey definitely didn't. He hit the field harder than the ground and they heard a sickening thud in response.

"Goddamn", yelled out Axton as they all watched in shock.

The beast repeated this again, extending Joey out before yanking him back and slamming him again. It did it one more time before letting its limp victim slide from his grasp onto the hard cavern floor. The others save for Tannis ran forward shooting at the appendage as it retreated back behind its protective field. Zer0 made it to the door, disappointed at the missed kill. He saw it retreat to its pitch black depths and could make out the movement of a slew of many more tentacles. He pressed on the doorway while the others ran to check on Joey.

They could already see that his ribcage was caved in. Axton reached all around his mask, trying to find a way to take it off but couldn't find any latch. Maya touched him with her Phaselock field to no reaction.

"He's gone", she announced.

"He's fine", announced Gaige, who closed Claptrap's front panel after quick-starting him back to life by detaching and reattaching the wires of his power core. She looked over at Joey and the others standing over his body.

"Oh", she said realizing what they were talking about. "You mean _him_."

"What the hell", asked Zer0, pointing down at him with a question mark displaying over his mask. "Look."

Joey's body was digitizing itself and dissipating before their very eyes; only, that didn't make any sense. As far as they knew, all of the New-U stations were deactivated and if Blake was telling the truth, privatized. So, why was Joey's body disappearing like he was using a New U?

Salvador cocked a Three-Way shotgun.

"Does anybody volunteer to make a sacrifice", he asked. He was referring to testing out the New U stations.

"No, man", Axton told him. "Don't do that."

"How else are we going to get out of here", asked Salvador. "The subs trashed! We're not going to swim out of here!"

"Why did it kill Joey like that and none of us", murmured Maya. She had approached the barrier and actually pressed upon it with her hands. She could barely see it recoiling in the darkness and could hear rough, alien breathing. "What is that thing?"

"Maya", yelled Axton, much more excitedly than the others expected from him. He approached her with his Seraphim assault rifle raised. "What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy!"

"Calm down", Tannis spoke up, yet keeping her distance, "it's as harmless as a puppy around you!"

"What are you talking about", asked Gaige.

"I figured it out", Tannis continued. "I remembered reading about the undersea vault containing a creature known as The Guardian. The Guardian is said to have arms of infinite reach and a mouth like a black hole. I think that creature was the Guardian. "

"Cool, another beast", said Zer0. "Now's there's only one question; why aren't we like him?"

"You've already proven yourselves worthy when you destroyed the Warrior, a beast that could've destroyed this planet", she explained. "By destroying the creature that could've destroyed Pandora and this vault, you have proven yourself worthy of seeing the other vaults and other planets; at least in the eyes of the eridians. I didn't and neither did Joey, which is why he got demolished and I am keeping my distance. Anybody who comes down here without having destroyed the Warrior has a huge chance of dying crying for their mothers. The five of you are safe, for now."

"So, you brought Joey down here", Maya asked Tannis, "knowing that he could have died a horrible death?"

"Are you really surprised", asked Salvador, noting their past history with her and apathetic attitude towards basically anybody who wasn't herself. As far as they knew, she only tolerated the vault hunters when she needed something from them.

A flowing sound of energy, similar to the sound of Maya's phaselock, drew Tannis' attentions from the vault hunters over to the center chamber. She absently walked away from them towards it.

"What the hell was that", asked Sal, looking at the others. Wordlessly, they all hurried after Tannis.

In the center chamber, a semi-transparent energy field appeared over the shattered crystals in the center of the room. It looked like a rift field of some sort. It was a window into some destination as far they could tell.

It appeared to be some bird's eye view over the location. They could make out the familiar abandoned chambers in the snow, the scrappy architecture, the crystalisks walking around aimlessly on the ice; this was the Fridge. Suddenly, the window changed again and sitted in some flaming pulpit was a eridian key in the shaped like a cylinder with a hole through the center of it and glowing a pinkish color in the flames.

"So, the key's in the Fridge", wondered Tannis.

"How", asked a bewildered Gaige, "we've been there hundreds of times. There's nothing there but crystalisks, stalkers and cannibals."

"We must have missed something", said Axton.

"Is this a portal", wondered Maya as she reached out for it.

Her question was answered as her hand penetrated the supercool epicenter, she suddenly felt a pull of force greater than a Black Hole Thresher. She attempted to fight it off with her powers, glowing purple in response but was quickly overpowered and yanked through. The other five weren't far behind, getting yanked inside without even getting a reaction in.

* * *

The vault hunters plus Claptrap found themselves falling from an intimidating height suddenly. The group bounced off of a thankfully heavily snowed peak before skidding onto a snowy patch in a clump.

Axton rolled around, sore and angry all at once. They had found a new vault and it was awesome and wonderful, but now he found out he had to find two more vault keys. One was in the fridge but the other one? Who knows? The reward was definitely worth it, though. The ability to get off Pandora and track down other vaults and more challenges had him chomping at the bit. He was sure the others felt the exact same way.

"That sucked", remarked Zer0, who struggled to sit up.

"No", Tannis remarked after looking around. "_this _sucks."

All around them, perched on cars and cavernous nooks on the caves above them, were gas-masked members of the cannibalistic sub-human dwellers of the Fridge known as the rats. The vault hunters had never seen so many in one place at once, nor had ever seen them so calm. They were usually so frantic and desperate in their actions that made them so easy to exploit and kill. Now, they were sitting and watching the vault hunters like buzzards waiting on their victim to die.

"The Goddesss-Mother said the thievesss would come", hissed one particular rat to another.

"Did you ever doubt the wordssss of our ssssavior, brother", he answered back. "She's always brought more eatsss for the family."

"I think I just leaked coolant all over myself", whined Claptrap.

Just as the vault hunters went to move, the rats were suddenly on them all at once. There was a lot of clawing, biting and savage ravaging. Before they knew it, the world went black for all of the vault hunters.

* * *

Helios was still massacring the Sawteeth while Brick was just trying to enter the fray. He quickly found that his buzzards, and by extension anything that the Sawteeth had, were severely outclassed and outgunned. Eventually, his buzzards were just trying to survive while trying to not get vaporized in Helios' photon explosions. The peacekeepers were designed to withstand their incredibly hot weaponry by having protective shielding over their hull and even forewent windows in favor of protected visual scanners. They were unaffected by the photon bombs, while some of Brick's buzzards went down in the attack.

"Blitzfield", Brick yelled over Echo after having his buzzards pull up and away from the fight, "where the hell are you? This isn't what we agreed on!"

* * *

Sawbone, the succeeding king of the Sawteeth after the vault hunters killed the last one, was on the run in his own throne room with some of his most trusted bodyguards. The situation was dire and frankly, they had already lost. Even a crazy guy like Sawbone would know that and he eats people's brains. The plan was to take five buzzards into the air as decoys, to allow cover for him to escape when in reality, he would have actually taken another buzzard to actually fly low to drop Sawbone by the fast travel station. That was the way it was supposed to have worked.

Sawbone used his elevator to get to the Smoking Guano Grotto rooftop, towards a buzzard waiting for him.

"Let's get this bastard in the air", yelled out Sawbone to his men.

He stopped in his tracks when a Helios Peacekeeper suddenly ascended over the Buzzard nest and dropped a photon missile on the grounded aircraft, exploding it and knocking Sawbone and his bodyguards off of their feet.

In fact, a pair of Peacekeepers veered around and destroyed all of Sawbone's buzzards while they were still in the nest.

Sawbone was still reeling on the ground when Adam Blitzfield himself approached him and his men. Sawbone grunted, rubbing his eyes as they were burning.

"It's over, Sawbone", Adam said, kneeling down to one knee in front of him. "You're outgunned and outclassed. Turn your resources and territories over to Brick and the slabs. I'm not asking you; I'm just giving you a chance to save yourself."

Sawbone leaned over and spit on Adam's chest. He laughed right in his face as Adam looked at the down at spit in amazement.

"Sergeant", Adam called to one of his NCOs at his side.

"Sir", the NCO reported at the position of attention, his heels together and his body in a straight line.

"Find me one of those ammo chests", Adam said, standing up while looking down at the still-laughing Sawbone. "Our king's here got jokes; so do I. Our humors are a bit different, though. I think that by the time the punchline comes around, he won't get it."

* * *

When the vault hunters came to, they were being dragged in chains. Frankly, they all felt a bit naked.

The rats stripped them of all their packs, storage decks and weapons. Even Axton's Sabre Turret pods were gone. The six were linked together by a long steel chain with pairs of cuffs attached to it throughout, locked around their wrists. Sadistically, the rats had torn out pieces of Claptrap until he stopped working and wrapped the chain his body so that as they walked, they dragged a limp Claptrap behind them in the snow. This emotionally cut Gaige so deeply.

The rats were taking the group through a part of the Fridge they had never been to and the vault hunters had no idea how they had gotten there. The rats brought them to an open clearing where the snow ended and there was nothing ice and fog for miles through some gigantic bank vault door. The rats pushed the group down forward onto the ice so that they fell.

"Look", Ax said, sitting up on his knees, "I'm all for theatrics but chains? Ominous fog? Come on! You're just being cheesy now! If you're going to kill us, just do it and get it over with! Don't subject us to this!"

"I dare you to try to kill us", Salvador threatened at them. "I dare you to _try_."

"Um", Tannis spoke up. "I would just like to say that I am in fact, not a vault hunter. I haven't killed any of you. In fact, I barely know these people."

"Who are you", Tannis asked Maya to prove her innocence.

"Sssshut up", yelled Cutty as he jumped in front of them and hissed in Tannis' face, causing her to flinch. "We will fill our bellies with you all in good time! Firssst, the Goddesss Mooootherrr wishes audience with the thievesss."

They heard rumbling in the distance as well as the cracking of ice.

"Aaaah", Cutty hissed. "She approaches. The Hands that Holds the Vaults will cast judgement on the thieving vault huntersss and we will finally see them put in their place."

The other rats cheered in their rough, ugly voices as the cracking ice got louder and louder. Purple lights began to pierce through the fog and a gigantic silhouette began to take shape and approach closer and closer.

When it got into the clearing, they realized it was giant crystalisk, larger than even Blue in Caustic Caverns, a crystalisk who already dwarfed the others. This one was even larger and on its back was a standing rider.

The rider was cloaked in a deep purple robe adorned with Eridian language and was impossibly thin and tall it seemed. Maya's Siren markings immediately began to glow and throb, causing her some discomfort in her binds.

The others picked up on this.

"Maya", Sal asked. "Are you okay?"

"Who is that", asked Maya.

"The Hands that Hold the Vaults", answered Cutty. "The true vault guardian; our Goddess-Mother: Queen Calime."

* * *

_Character Introduction__-_

_Calime_:**?_!_**

* * *

Calime looked down upon Maya and the other vault hunters with her glowing, purple eyes from beneath her shadowy cloak and Maya just knew they were in true peril this time.

* * *

Brick ordered his Ultimate Badass Buzzard to dock on Helios' Mother Love, a hangar ship that housed the quarters of most of the Helios soldiers as well as the Peacekeepers. It was a rather large ship.

After docking on the ship, Brick dismounted from his buzzards and demanded access to the Mother Love's interior.

"I need to see Adam Blitzfield _now", _Brick told the ship's airlocked front door. Eventually, the doors opened for Brick, who strolled right through the hall. He passed a few Helios soldiers, who all gave him looks but he didn't care. He walked right to the command deck, where the ships navigators and pilots were planning the ship's route for the day, while Joanna Allen listened to all of this to run by Adam Blitzfield later.

When Brick attempted to walk up the steps to enter the command deck, two Helios soldiers immediately barred his entrance with weapons drawn.

"Get out of my way", Brick warned, grinding his teeth and fists together.

"Nobody enters the command deck except for Helios personnel", said one of the soldiers.

"Dude, I will destroy you", Brick told them.

"Let him go", ordered Allen from the deck. "It's alright."

The soldiers gave Brick a look of disdain before parting so he could pass them. He walked up the steps towards Joanna Allen. The deck was very advanced; there were two levels, one for the pilots and navigators and another for the captain and presumably Blitzfield to oversee them. Joanna was waiting patiently for Brick with her hands clasped behind her back.

He approached her and looked her up and down.

"Are you really a siren", he asked.

"Don't I look the part", she casually asked. "Our dear commander will be out shortly; he's just resting his eyes."

"Why did you do that", Brick asked. "You killed most of the Sawteeth before I could even get there. I told you it was mostly my fight. I was supposed to lead it. Also, I could have used those men. My whole plan was to unite the clans, not destroy them."

"Look", she said with an unimpressed face, "I know you're a tough guy, some big swinging #$%S around here but let me tell you how the big dogs roll, okay? Helios doesn't take prisoners who are worth _nothing_, we don't negotiate with psychopaths and we don't take orders from _you_. The most important thing is you have now is an impenetrable stronghold and the Bandit corp. weapon facilities. You know control all of the guns made and distributed on this planet. So, on behalf of Commander Blitzfield, I forgive you. I know what you meant to say was _thank you_; and you're welcome."

Brick laughed this off at first before he wrapped his right huge fist around Joanna's slender throat, physically threatening to crush it and lifting her off of her feet slightly. Every soldier who was armed on the command deck, had guns trained on him.

"Did you forget, bitch", Brick spat in Joanna's face, whom was barely struggling, "I'm _king _of the psychopaths."

Blitzfield stepped onto the deck and whistled at Brick.

"Woohoo, Brick", he said to catch his attention and get him to turn around. Brick eventually did, still holding Joanna in his grasp.

"Peace, bro", he said, before biting into his apple and sitting on a panel next to a monitor, cross-legged style. "Can you put down my Senior NCO; I kind of need her. Please?"

He turned to his men.

"It's okay", he told them, gesturing them to lower their weapons.

They did so, albeit reluctantly.

"Now, Brick", Blitzfield said to him, biting into his apple again. "Your beef isn't with Allen. She was in command of this ship at the time. It's with me and I will answer all of your questions if you let her go."

Brick dropped Allen to the ground, whom had passed out. Some personnel ran to check on her and determined she was still alive. Brick walked towards Adam, who didn't move from his seated position while some soldiers took Joanna to the infirmary.

"You didn't do what we agreed on", said Brick.

"And I'm sorry about that", said with a hand on his heart, "really I am, but I felt that we needed to send a message. Whoever we hit first had to get hit _hard_ so that the others will see that and not put up a fight. I know what I'm talking about, Brick; I do this for a living."

Brick looked at Adam's dust goggles that he always wore. It didn't make the man easy to read, not being able to see his eyes but he could tell just by Adam's gestures and facial expressions that he was enjoying himself.

"You really get off on it, don't you", Brick asked. "Messing with people and all of the suffering, you can't get enough of it. You remind me of another egotistical madman I used to know. Handsome Jack."

Almost all at once, the smile faded from Blitzfield's face. He took another bite of his apple, watching Brick the whole time.

"Brick", he said finally, "there's something I want to give you."

He looked at a couple of his men and ordered them to bring him the ammo chest.

"What is this", Brick asked.

Adam gestured to wait until the ammo chest came. The soldiers brought it with handles on both sides and set it down in front of Brick.

"Go ahead", goaded Blitzfield.

Reluctantly, Brick kneeled down and unlatched the locks. He flipped open the top and immediately stood back up. He backed away, speechless. Sawbone was in there, gasping for air and trying to say something. It didn't register on Brick's mind at the time but he think it might've been "_help me_".

"You can play dress up", said Blitzfield, "you can give him to your little girl if you ever have one; you can use him as a coat rack."

Adam walked over to a stunned Brick and slapped him a few times on the chest.

"What's wrong, big guy", Adam said to the paling giant, "you don't look so good. You need to sit down?"

Brick looked down at the man and saw him in a whole new light. They had sawed Sawbones' _limbs_ off, leaving his protruding bones with sharp tips like swords.

"What is _wrong_ with you", Brick asked Adam.

"You're wrong, Brick", Adam told Brick, but ignoring his question. "I don't even feel the suffering. I get off on breaking you people."

Adam finished his apple and flung it into a trashcan before turning on his heels and leaving Brick on the command deck, dumbfounded.

"Next is the Bloodshots, right", Adam asked without looking. "I'll be in touch."


End file.
